In the 2015 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) rankings, UZH has been ranked 85^th, placing it among the top 10% of the 891 institutions covered worldwide.

Over the years, UZH’s results in the QS rankings has varied considerably, from being placed 140^th in 2007 to 57^th in 2015. Due to massive changes in the ranking’s methodology – always open to criticism – a viable comparison of this year’s results with those of previous years is unfortunately not possible.

For the 2015 rankings, the all-important “citations per researcher” – the sole indicator used to measure research impact – was calculated differently in order to treat all academic disciplines, both those with high and low citation frequency, equally. The upshot of this “field normalization” process for UZH in 2015, however, is that despite clear strengths in highly cited disciplines such as Life Sciences & Medicine (where it ranks 50^th worldwide), its overall rank in the indicator “citations per researcher” was only among the mid-range performers (401^st). In comparison, UZH’s 2014 results for this indicator (which were not normalized according to discipline) were substantially better, which also led to a much higher final result across all ranking indicators.

Among the eight Swiss universities featured on the list, UZH is ranked 1-4 in the five academic disciplines covered, and third overall.

UZH in the QS Ranking: A comparison over time