International ranking and position

The Netherlands has a binary system of Higher Education with 13 research universities, including VU Amsterdam, and 40 universities of applied sciences. The Dutch research universities are all of high academic quality, and consistently ranked among the first 250 universities in international rankings. Only the US and UK feature more research universities in the top 200. In no other system except for Switzerland, the proportion of all research universities in the top 250 is this high.

The Leiden Ranking is based on publications in the Web of Science database produced by Clarivate Analytics. The Leiden Ranking uses the Science Citation Index Expanded, the Social Sciences Citation Index, and the Arts & Humanities Citation Index. Only publications of the Web of Science document types article and review are taken into account. VU Amsterdam holds the 68th position in this ranking.

In the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2022 (ARWU, Shanghai Ranking), which focuses on research excellence, VU Amsterdam currently holds the 153rd position worldwide.

We are among the top 150 universities in the World University Ranking of Times Higher Education: this ranking places our university at spot 121. This global performance ranking judges research-intensive universities across their core missions: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

The QS Ranking (Quacquarelli Symonds) of 2023 places

VU Amsterdam 214th in the world. We position ourself most strongly on the component ‘citations per faculty’ (position 150 worldwide). Compared to last year, VU Amsterdam also positions itself higher on the component ’education to international students’.

VU Amsterdam ranks number 1 in the annual ranking of Dutch higher education institutions, SustainaBul. Institutions are assessed via a questionnaire divided into sustainability in research, education, business operations and best practices. This is the third year in a row that VU Amsterdam scores in the top 3 universities, showing our continuous commitment to sustainability throughout all aspects of the university.