The University of Zurich numbers among the world’s higher education institutions with a strong global outlook and, in the current edition of the THE World University Rankings “World’s Most International Universities 2017” UZH is ranked in 15^th place. The ranking measures the proportion of international students and instructors as well as journal publications having at least one international co-author. In addition, the international reputation of a higher education institution is calculated by ascertaining the relationship between responses abroad and responses in Switzerland in the “THE Academic Reputation Survey.”

Because a new methodology has been applied, a comparison with the 2016 ranking (46) is not possible.

Topping the list of most international universities are the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology in Zurich and Lausanne, making Switzerland second only to Singapore as the country with the most international universities. The relatively small size of Switzerland naturally factors into its global outlook. It is therefore no great surprise that the proportion of international feedback in international reputation surveys and the number of international co-authors are correspondingly high. An interesting aspect of the “THE World’s Most International Universities 2017” is the absence of American universities in the top twenty, especially as they normally occupy the top places in university rankings.