Finance

The 17 European universities with the highest quality of teaching

Will Martin

2016-09-24T07:45:00Z

The courtyard at the main ENS building, Cour au Ernests Wikipedia

Every year, Times Higher Education releases its ranking of the world's best universities, a comprehensive list of the finest institutions of higher education on the planet.

This year's ranking, released on Thursday, puts Britain's University of Oxford at the top of the pile as the world's best, beating out the likes of Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and its closest rival, Cambridge.

The overall rankings are based on teaching, research, and citations of every university, with each category weighted at 30% of the overall mark.

However, given that — for undergraduates at least — having good professors and lecturers is one of the most crucial parts of the university experience, Business Insider decided to pull out the universities in Europe with the highest scores for their teaching.

Check out the schools with the highest standard of teaching in Europe below, as ranked out of 100. We've included their overall rankings in brackets.

17 (55). University of Manchester — Scoring 58.2 for its teaching, Manchester was pretty low down the teaching ranking compared to its overall position. Staff at the university include Nobel Prize winning physicist Andre Geim, and renowned TV host and physicist Brian Cox.

16 (116). Ecole Polytechnique — Located in Paris, Ecole Polytechnique punched above its weight in teaching terms, scoring 58.6 despite being 116th overall.

15 (66). Ecole Normale Superieure — Another Parisian school on the list, ENS as it is known picked up 59.8 points for its teaching. It has produced 13 Nobel Prize winners, including eight in physics.

14 (46). Technical University of Munich — Famous for the giant slide in one of its buildings (pictured below) this Bavarian university picked up 61 points for the quality of its teaching.

13 (36). King's College London — One of numerous London-based universities to make this ranking, Kings College gained 61.5 points for its teaching. Famous alumni include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and poet John Keats.

12 (28). Karolinska Institute — Located in Stockholm, Sweden, Karolinska is purely a medical school, and every year is responsible for naming the winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine. It scored 62.1 from THE for the standard of its teaching.

11 (57). Humboldt University of Berlin — Humboldt is one of Germany's most prestigious universities, and it has a teaching standard to match, scoring 62.5 points. 29 Nobel Prize winners are associated with the university.

10 (30). Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne — The Swiss university, which is world renowned for its engineering programmes, scores 62.9 points from THE.

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

9 (43). Heidelberg University — A big jump from the previous school, Heidelberg — which is the oldest university in Germany — scores 66.7 points for its teaching. 56 Nobel laureates are associated with the school.

8 (27). University of Edinburgh — The historic Scottish university scored 67.5 points for the standard of its teaching. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the lightbulb are among those to have attended the school.

7 (30). LMU Munich — Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich to give it its full name, scored 70.5 points from THE in its 2016/17 ranking. Prior to becoming the most powerful man in the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI taught theology at the college.

University of Ludwig Maximillian, Munich (LMU)

6 (25). London School of Economics and Political Science — Educating people as varied as Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones to former Greek prime minister George Papandreou, the LSE scored 70.8 points.

LSE Old Building — King George V laid the foundation for LSE's Old Building in 1920. Wikipedia

5 (15). University College London — UCL ranked as the second best university in London, and the fourth best in the UK for teaching, the central London school scored 77.4 points.

4 (9). ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich — The highest standard of teaching in any non-UK European nation, ETH scored 81.5 points from Times Higher Education.

3 (8). Imperial College London — London's best university teaching can be found at Imperial College, which scored 86.4 points. 15 Nobel Prize winners have an association with the university.

2 (1). University of Oxford — Oxford may be the best university in the world according to THE, but its teaching is only fifth globally and second in Europe. It scored 89.6 points.

University of Oxford Matriculation Students

1 (4). University of Cambridge — The best teaching in Europe, and the third best globally, can be found in the sleepy town of Cambridge. It scored 90.6 points. Probably the most famous person ever to teach at the university is world renowned physicist Stephen Hawking.