The University of Twente has achieved the best ranking of any Dutch university in the annual international university rankings of the Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University (the ‘Leiden Rankings’). Twente is in 64th place of the 500 institutions which were included in the survey.
This high ranking was achieved by looking at the proportion of the university's publications that were among the best 10% (most cited). Twente is closely followed by Wageningen UR (69th), Erasmus University (74th) and VU University Amsterdam (75th).
High standard
There are no large differences between the universities in the Netherlands, which are all of high quality: 'The scientific standard in the Netherlands is high across the board, although there are four universities that have a particular edge: Twente, Wageningen, Rotterdam and VU University,' according to the press release for the Leiden Rankings.
The Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is at the top of the international rankings. In fact, the top 20 universities are almost entirely in the US with the exception of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule in Zürich, both of which are located in Switzerland.
The Leiden Rankings also look at the mean normalized citation score, which takes account of the average number of citations as well as differences between subject areas, the year of publication and the type of publication. Twente is ranked 80th according to this measure, fourth place among the Dutch universities.
When looking at publications which come about through international cooperation - publications whose authors are from different institutions around the globe - Twente's ranking is lower.
For more information about the Leiden Rankings and the methods used, please see www.leidenranking.com.
Please also refer to the Leiden Rankings press release about the latest rankings.
For more information, you can contact: Wiebe van der Veen, tel. (053) 4894244 or 06 121 85 692.
