Best universities in Europe for teaching

Explore which universities in Europe rank highly for teaching excellence based on data collected by Times Higher Education

July 4 2019

Best universities in Europe for teaching

Times Higher Education has produced a student-focused ranking to determine the best universities for teaching across Europe.

Instead of placing a focus on research output and quality, as many international university rankings do, the 2019 Europe Teaching Rankings determines the best universities for teaching quality and learning opportunities for students.

One of the key components of the ranking was THE's European Student Survey, taken by 125,000 university students in 18 countries across Europe. Students rated their university on a scale of zero to 10 across a number of aspects of their university life, including collaborative learning, critical thinking and application of learning to the real world.

The Student Survey accounted for 45 per cent of the university’s final scores and fed into six of the 14 performance indicators used to rank the institutions. To view the full methodology and all of the questions asked in the Student Survey click here.

The ranking is modelled on the WSJ/THE US College Rankings and the Japan University Rankings, which aim to keep the student experience at the core of the data collection.

The top five of the Europe Teaching Rankings is dominated by UK universities, with the University of Oxford taking the top spot and the University of Cambridge coming in second. In third place is the only non-UK institution in the top five, the University of Navarra in Spain. Taking the fourth and fifth places are UCL and the University of St Andrews respectively.

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Top five universities in Europe for teaching

1. University of Oxford, UK

Regularly ranking highly in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, the University of Oxford is well known for providing high-quality teaching and learning.

International students make up approximately 43 per cent of the student body, coming from the USA, China, Singapore, France, Germany and Italy, among other nations.

The university is split into a collegiate structure with 38 separate colleges, each with its own unique identity and history.

Because of its strong reputation within the higher education sector, the university has a competitive admissions stream, with approximately six applications per university place. Students are able to specify their college of choice or leave it open in their application. Students will then be allocated a college based on their individual interests and strengths. Prospective students are invited for an interview that is known to test a student’s knowledge of their chosen subject and their critical thinking skills.

2. University of Cambridge, UK

In second place is the University of Cambridge, also located in the UK. At more than 800 years old, the institution has become a true hallmark of the high-quality higher education that Europe can offer.

Like Oxford, Cambridge follows a collegiate structure with 31 separate colleges that are governed by the teaching staff attached to those colleges. Students are encouraged to socialise and spend time in their own colleges.

In the European Student Survey, the university scored very highly on access to learning materials. This includes libraries (of which there are more than 100, housing more than 15 million books), labs and online material.

3. University of Navarra, Spain

The University of Navarra has six campuses in Pamplona, San Sebastian, Madrid, Barcelona, Munich and New York City. The main campus is in Pamplona.

The university initially started as a law school and has now expanded to include 14 faculties, two university schools, 17 institutes, a business school, and other centres and institutions.

The university also runs a teaching hospital where medical professionals treat more that 100,000 patients a year as well carrying out medical research.

Student experience in Europe

'Studying in the UK has always been my dream'
International perspective: a Canadian student in France
International perspective: an Albanian student in Germany
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A day in the life of a student in France
International perspective: a Belarusian student in Lithuania
Reflections from a University of Oxford foundation year student
International perspective: a British student in Spain
Why I love studying in Berlin
Life at the University of Cambridge

4. UCL, UK

UCL was established in 1826, originally under the name London University. It then became University College, London in 1836 and is now mostly referred to as UCL.

The university is primarily located in Bloomsbury, central London. A number of other buildings are dotted around the city, as well as a new campus in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London, which is known as UCL East.

Admissions to the university are highly selective, with many prospective students expected to receive the highest grades in their school exams to gain entry.

5. University of St Andrews, UK

The University of St Andrews is the oldest university in Scotland and is the third oldest university in the UK , after the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

Over 900 degree courses are now offered at the university, organised across four faculties: arts, divinity, medicine, and science.

It was one of the first universities in the UK to admit female students back in 1892.

Top 100 universities in Europe for teaching excellence

Europe Teaching Rank 2019	Europe Teaching Rank 2018	World University rank 2019	University	Country
1	1	1	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
2	2	2	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
3	8	251–300	University of Navarra	Spain
4	5	14	UCL	United Kingdom
5	15	165	University of St Andrews	United Kingdom
6	13	38	King’s College London	United Kingdom
7	16	=146	Lancaster University	United Kingdom
8	4	=79	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
=9	6	78	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
=9	14	29	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
=9	7	57	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
12	20	145	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
13	NR	26	London School of Economics and Political Science	United Kingdom
=14	=11	9	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
=14	18	=149	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
16	=9	119	University of York	United Kingdom
17	24	130	Queen Mary University of London	United Kingdom
=18	=22	351–400	Autonomous University of Madrid	Spain
=18	31	=93	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
=20	30	62	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
=20	=34	141	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
22	=11	106	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
23	=9	=171	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
=24	NR	=123	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
=24	NR	166	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
26	39	=79	University of Groningen	Netherlands
27	37	=181	University of Liverpool	United Kingdom
28	NR	251–300	University of Southern Denmark	Denmark
29	19	201–250	University of Barcelona	Spain
=30	=26	=153	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
=30	=22	=161	University of Sussex	United Kingdom
32	29	=114	Durham University	United Kingdom
=33	NR	NR	IE University	Spain
=33	17	201–250	Paris-Sud University	France
=35	=26	47	Heidelberg University	Germany
=35	51-75	501–600	NOVA University of Lisbon	Portugal
=37	32	=187	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
=37	51-75	120	Trinity College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
=39	=50	401–500	Claude Bernard University Lyon 1	France
=39	40	251–300	University of Essex	United Kingdom
41	NR	401–500	Semmelweis University	Hungary
42	33	201–250	University of Reading	United Kingdom
=43	44	201–250	University of Bath	United Kingdom
=43	3	73	Sorbonne University	France
45	NR	201–250	Copenhagen Business School	Denmark
46	51-75	=190	University of East Anglia	United Kingdom
47	51-75	601–800	Carlos III University of Madrid	Spain
=48	=34	401–500	Loughborough University	United Kingdom
=48	21	118	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
=48	=47	301–350	University College Cork	Republic of Ireland
51-75	51-75	158	University of Aberdeen	United Kingdom
51-75	51-75	351–400	Aberystwyth University	United Kingdom
51-75	51-75	501–600	University of Aveiro	Portugal
51-75	25	=116	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
51-75	NR	180	University of Bologna	Italy
51-75	76-100	401–500	Complutense University of Madrid	Spain
51-75	76-100	601–800	Coventry University	United Kingdom
51-75	38	=123	University of Göttingen	Germany
51-75	=47	351–400	University of Kent	United Kingdom
51-75	51-75	=167	University of Leicester	United Kingdom
51-75	76-100	501–600	University of Limerick	Republic of Ireland
51-75	51-75	=32	LMU Munich	Germany
51-75	51-75	=123	University of Mannheim	Germany
51-75	NR	NR	University of Paris	France
51-75	51-75	301–350	Polytechnic University of Milan	Italy
51-75	76-100	601–800	Polytechnic University of Valencia	Spain
51-75	42	=135	Pompeu Fabra University	Spain
51-75	43	401–500	University of Porto	Portugal
51-75	76-100	201–250	Queen’s University Belfast	United Kingdom
51-75	101-125	601–800	University of Rennes 1	France
51-75	51-75	251–300	Royal Holloway, University of London	United Kingdom
51-75	51-75	351–400	University of Siena	Italy
51-75	45	251–300	University of Surrey	United Kingdom
51-75	51-75	=44	Technical University of Munich	Germany
51-75	NR	201–250	Tilburg University	Netherlands
76-100	51-75	301–350	Aix-Marseille University	France
76-100	51-75	601–800	University of Alcalá	Spain
76-100	76-100	351–400	Aston University	United Kingdom
76-100	76-100	301–350	University of Bayreuth	Germany
76-100	NR	601–800	University of Beira Interior	Portugal
76-100	76-100	401–500	Brunel University London	United Kingdom
76-100	76-100	351–400	City, University of London	United Kingdom
76-100	41	201–250	University of Dundee	United Kingdom
76-100	NR	NR	ESIC Business and Marketing School	Spain
76-100	NR	401–500	University of Jyväskylä	Finland
76-100	76-100	501–600	Keele University	United Kingdom
76-100	126-150	189	University of Konstanz	Germany
76-100	=50	601–800	University of Minho	Portugal
76-100	76-100	301–350	Montpellier University	France
76-100	76-100	601–800	Nottingham Trent University	United Kingdom
76-100	126-150	801–1000	Pablo de Olavide University	Spain
76-100	76-100	501–600	Panthéon-Sorbonne University – Paris 1	France
76-100	101-125	401–500	University of Pavia	Italy
76-100	NR	301–350	University of Pisa	Italy
76-100	101-125	501–600	Polytechnic University of Catalonia	Spain
76-100	51-75	401–500	University of Portsmouth	United Kingdom
76-100	NR	NR	Ramon Llull University	Spain
76-100	101-125	601–800	University of Salamanca	Spain
76-100	76-100	351–400	University of Stirling	United Kingdom
76-100	=47	401–500	University of Strathclyde	United Kingdom
76-100	101-125	251–300	Swansea University	United Kingdom
76-100	76-100	401–500	University of Valencia	Spain
76-100	NR	801–1000	Vilnius University	Lithuania
76-100	51-75	601–800	University of Zaragoza	Spain