Vrije Universiteit Brussel rises in THE world university ranking
Most Belgian universities feature in top 13% of world’s best institutions
Thursday 13 October – Vrije Universiteit Brussel is among the world’s top 13% best universities, and is the fifth best university in Belgium. This is according to the annual World University Rankings of Britain’s Times Higher Education magazine (THE).
The ranking is an increase for VUB compared to last year. UAntwerp and UHasselt have also moved up the list, while UMons appears in the rankings for the first time.
KU Leuven is ranked highest of all the Belgian universities, at number 42. UGent comes second (107), followed by UAntwerp (131), UCLouvain (170), ULB and VUB, which both appear in the 201-250 ranking group.
THE rates universities based on parameters in four areas: teaching, research, internationalisation and valorisation. With the exception of UCLouvain, every Belgian institution improved its overall score. In the domains of education and internationalisation, almost all of them saw their score increase. This result indicates that Belgian university education is among the world’s strongest.
Evolution of VUB
VUB climbs to fifth place out of the 10 ranked Belgian universities. In 2021, it was ranked sixth out of nine. VUB also rises from the 251-300 ranking group to 201-250, moving into the same group as sister university ULB.
VUB is showing a pleasing evolution in its final score, as well as scores in four of the five domains. Research remains its strongest pillar, while there was an increase in score for citations. Thanks to these results – its best to date – VUB is now considered by THE to be among the top 13% universities in the world.
Nathalie Vlaemynck
