The annual ranking incorporates surveys on reputation as well as a variety of indicators for teaching, research, citations, financial aspects such as income from the private sector, and the international diversity of the teaching staff and students.

The University was able to gain ground in several areas: UZH improved its already good results over the previous year in all indicators in the general area of research. This development is especially positive regarding research output (research output: Number of publications per academic member of staff), as the higher volume of publications also resulted in a small increase in the number of citations of UZH scholarly articles. The situation for students has also improved, as evidenced by the slightly better student-to-instructor ratio compared to the previous year.

International outlook is another positive factor: 53% of the teaching staff and 18% of the students are from abroad, a comparatively high level of internationality. According to the ranking, only 59 other university can claim a greater diversity, meaning UZH numbers among the top 10% of all universities in this indicator .

Less positive is the relative decline in income from the private sector: Although these numbers remained stable at the University of Zurich, income at other universities increased, leading to a lower result for UZH. The same pattern applies to income per academic member of staff. Despite an actual increase in its budget compared to last year, the University has a less advantageous foundation than other universities on the global playing field.

The THE Rankings 2016

The rankings methodology 2016