Securing and expanding our global position
The University of Twente (UT) appears in various national and international rankings. While rankings never tell the full story, they do offer insight into how UT performs in areas such as education, research, and societal impact.
Each ranking has its own specific focus and uses indicators that, in their view, reflect the quality and performance of a university.
Arwu Shanghai Subject Ranking
ITC is a global leader with a strong brand name in the scientific domain of geo-information science and earth observation and a solid, global reputation in capacity development.
Each year, Shanghai Ranking releases the edition of their Global Ranking of Academic Subjects. This release contains rankings of universities in 54 subjects across Natural Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Social Sciences. In total, more than 4000 universities were ranked.
In the Shanghai subject ranking 2025 (Subject: engineering | remote sensing), ITC | University of Twente ranks 27th in the world, 3th in Europe and 1st in the Netherlands.
Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)
ARWU uses six indicators to rank universities, including: the number of alumni and staff who have won Nobel Prizes and other awards, the number of highly cited researchers selected by Clarivate Analytics, the number of scientific publications, the number of articles indexed in the Science Citation Index - Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index, and the overall performance of a university.
UT’s position in 2025: 501–600 out of over 2.500 universities
CWTS Leiden ranking
The CWTS Leiden Ranking developed by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University, assesses universities worldwide based on scientific publications and citations. It uses objective data from the Web of Science database to measure research impact, collaboration, open access, and diversity.
UT’s position in 2024: 489 of 1.506 universities
QS world university rankings
The QS World University Rankings annually assesses over 1,500 universities worldwide, based on both hard data (such as student-to-staff ratio, citations per faculty, and proportion of international students) and reputation surveys among academics and employers.
Overall ranking UT in 2025: 233 of over 1,500 universities
QS world university rankings: sustainability
This ranking highlights which universities are leading globally in social and environmental sustainability, assessing nearly 1,800 institutions on their ability to address major ESG challenges (Environmental, Social & Governance). It uses indicators that measure how institutions contribute to a more sustainable world through policy, research, education, and societal impact.
UT’s position in 2025: 177 of approximately 1,800 institutions
Times Higher Education Impact Ranking
This ranking assesses institutions on their contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a focus on sustainability in policy, research, education, and societal impact.
UT’s position in 2025: ranked within the 401–600 band out of 2,526 universities worldwide
Times Higher Education World University Rankings
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE) evaluates universities worldwide based on 18 indicators, divided across five main categories. It is one of the most comprehensive and internationally recognised lists, based on millions of citations, publications, and surveys among scientists worldwide:
- Teaching: quality of the learning environment, reputation, and student-to-staff ratio
- Research Environment: volume, income, and reputation of research
- Research Quality: impact and influence of scientific publications
- Industry Engagement: collaboration with businesses and knowledge transfer
- International Outlook: proportion of international students, staff, and collaborations
For UT, the scores for research quality (74.6), industry engagement (99.3), and international outlook (93.1) stand out as particularly high.
UT’s position in 2025: 180 of 2,092 universities from 115 countries
World University Ranking by subject: social sciences
This ranking uses the same trusted and rigorous performance indicators as the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, but the methodology has been recalibrated to suit the individual fields: communication and media studies, politics and international studies (including development studies), sociology and geography.
Overall ranking UT in 2023: 89 of 941 universities