KU Leuven Maintains Strong Position in QS World University Rankings

KU Leuven ranks 63rd in the QS World University Rankings and remains the highest ranked Belgian university in this list. The university scores particularly well for International Research Network and also strongly for Academic reputation. It is the only Belgian university in the top 100 and is also among the top 4% in ranking.

Further expanding the university’s international research network has been high on the policy agenda for a number of years. KU Leuven is also home to several important international networks, such as the League of European Research Universities, which groups the leading European universities such as Cambridge, Oxford, Heidelberg, Sorbonne or Zurich. This also applies to Una Europa, one of the most successful European university alliances.

In addition, investments have been made in recent years in joint doctoral programs with many leading universities. Such programs not only lead to an expansion of our own research capacity, but also play an important role in the further development of research, innovation and international anchoring of the Flemish region.

About the QS World University Rankings
The QS World University Rankings have been published since 2004. The ranking is drawn up on the basis of six existing parameters, to which three new parameters (*) have been added since 2023: 

• academic reputation (30%), based on a survey of more than 130,000 academics from around the world; 
• employer reputation: the opinion of 75,000 employers worldwide (15%); 
• employment outcomes (5%)*;
• the average number of students per academic staff member (‘faculty’) (10%); 
• the average number of citations per faculty (20%); 
• the share of international students (5%);
• the share of international researchers (5%); 
• international research network (5%)*;
• sustainability (5%)*