These are the top 10 universities in Europe
Profile of students taking their seats for the diploma ceremony. Image: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
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The UK is home to seven out of 10 of the best universities in Europe, according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2015-2016.
The rankings assess the performance of universities across the world based on five key areas: teaching, research, citations, international outlook and industry income.
UK institutions take the top three spots, with the University of Oxford named the best European university, with an overall score of 94.2, followed by the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London.
As well as filling seven of the top 10 positions, the UK is home to nearly a quarter of the top 200 best universities in Europe, with 46 universities in the list.
Germany is the second most-represented country, with 36 universities making the top 200. The nation’s institutions score highly for their teaching environment, with LMU Munich, Germany’s highest ranking institution scoring more in this area than some higher placed universities, such as London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Edinburgh.
Scandinavian countries also perform well, especially relative to their population size. Sweden’s Karolinska Institute features in the top 10, while there are 11 Swedish institutions in the top 200. Finland has six universities in the rankings.
Universities in eastern and southern Europe score poorly in comparison. Five Russian institutions make the rankings, with only one in the top 100 – Lomonosov Moscow State University, in 79th place. This makes Russia the lowest-ranking country relative to its population and GDP.
Spain is the second-lowest country when ranked in relation to GDP, with only five universities featured. The highest, Autonomous University of Barcelona, is at number 70.
The full Times Higher Education World University Rankings includes 800 universities from 70 countries and is available here.
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