Ranking Heidelberg Among “Top Three” Universities in Germany

Ruperto Carola confirms its excellent standing among the “top three” best universities in Germany in the current QS World University Rankings 2025/2026. While Heidelberg University places third Germany-wide as in the previous year, it moves up four places internationally, now ranking 80th, and takes 27th place in the European-wide comparison. The previous year’s ranking had already seen an improvement of three places in the global comparison. In the current ranking, Heidelberg University comes after Technical University of Munich and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU). Besides Heidelberg and the two Munich universities, Freie Universität Berlin and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology are among the “top 100” in the QS Rankings. This means that five of the 48 German universities featured in the ranking are among the 100 best in the world.

The ranking takes into account nine indicators with different weightings – there were six until 2022/2023. A university’s reputation makes for 45 percent of the overall ranking, comprising academic reputation (30 percent) and employer reputation (15 percent).

Other criteria are faculty-student ratio and citations per faculty. The share of international scholars and international students is likewise taken into account. The new indicators introduced in the 2023/2024 ranking are sustainability, international research networks, and employment outcomes. 

The 2025/2026 edition of the QS World University Rankings, published on 19 June 2025, includes over 1,500 universities worldwide.