The QS World University Ranking 2020 has just been released. Big news for China, which achieved its third university among the top 25, Peking University, moving up from place 30 to 22. Tsinghua University is still the best ranked Chinese University, moving from spot 17 to 16. Only Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and National University of Singapore are still ahead of the Chinese universities in Asia.
Among the rising stars in Asia, Dutch universities are still maintaining their solid positions. The highest ranked Dutch university is the Technical University of Delft at position 50. There are no Dutch universities in the top 25. However, all together, the relatively small Dutch universities make an impressive impact. 12 of the Netherlands’ 13 research universities are in the QS ranking top 250. In the latest Times Higher Education Ranking, these 12 universities were even in the top 200, making the Netherlands the 4th country worldwide measured by number of universities in the top 200.
In subject specific rankings, Dutch universities often score better. For example, Wageningen University has consistently been number 1 in agriculture and food sciences in various rankings. Nature recently released a ranking of University Medical Centers in biomedical sciences, in which 7 out the 8 Dutch University Medical Centers are in the worldwide top 75. Highest ranked is Erasmus Medical Center, as number 30 in the Europe top 3.
The importance of biomedical sciences for the Dutch innovation ecosystem is growing, not in the last place because of the moving of the European Medicine Agency (EMA) to Amsterdam as a result of the Brexit.