QS World University Rankings: Europe 2026: The University of Freiburg is among the top ten universities in Germany
Freiburg, 30/01/2026
The University of Freiburg is among the top 10 universities in Germany and among the top 100 in Europe in the QS World University Rankings: Europe 2026.
The QS World University Rankings: Europe by the British company Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) have been published. In this year’s ranking, the University of Freiburg ranks 9th out of 102 German universities. In a Europe-wide comparison, it ranks 71st out of 958 listed institutions. This means that it has improved its European ranking by five places compared to last year.
The University of Freiburg achieved its best national ranking in the area of sustainability (61st place in Europe). It ranks 7th in Germany in the areas of outbound exchange students (38th in Europe) and citations per publication (74th in Europe). It also ranks in the national top 10 in terms of the proportion of international researchers, coming in at 9th place.
An overview of the most important results:
- In total: 9th place nationally, 71st place in Europe
- Indicator “Sustainability”: 5th place nationally, 61st place in Europe
- Indicator “Outbound Exchange Student”: 7th place nationally, 38th place in Europe
- Indicator “Citations per Paper”: 7th place nationally, 74th place in Europe
- Indicator “International Faculty Ratio”: 9th place nationally
Methodology of the QS World University Rankings: Europe
The QS World University Rankings: Europe take into account countries that belong to the 46 member states of the Council of Europe. The rankings are based on twelve indicators from five areas. The areas of research, employability, internationality, learning experience and sustainability are each based on a different number of indicators, which are weighted differently to calculate the overall result.
The data source used to calculate the ranking includes publication analyses based on results from Elsevier’s Scopus database. In addition, data provided by the universities themselves is used to compile the ranking.