UZH has improved in four out of six indicators. UZH did particularly well in terms of student-instructor ratio, climbing a total of 11 places.  The University also performed very well with its ratio of international teaching staff, in place 55 of the rankings, despite dropping nine places.

There were also improvements for UZH with regard to citations per member of teaching staff (+73), proportion of international students (+12) and academic reputation (+6). In contrast, the reputational feedback among employers saw a deterioration, with UZH dropping 15 positions in this area compared to last year. 

In Switzerland, UZH came in third place, behind ETH Zurich and EPFL. This means UZH remains the best-ranked comprehensive university in Switzerland. Among universities in Europe, UZH gained two places and now ranks 22nd.

The annual QS Rankings are based on an assessment of data collected for over 1000 universities worldwide. Reputational surveys among employers and academic peers account for a large part of the overall score. Another key factor is the evaluation of bibliometric data from the SCOPUS database.

The QS World University Rankings are composed of six indicators with different weightings: Academic Reputation (40%), Reputation among Employers (10%), Teaching Staff/Student Ratio (20%), Citations per Member of Teaching Staff (20%) as well as 5% each for International Teaching Staff Ratio and International Student Ratio.