In the most recent QS ranking, KU Leuven (Flanders) comes in at number 76 worldwide. “Founded in 1425, KU Leuven is one of the oldest and most renowned universities in Europe [as well as] a leading institution when it comes to the valorization of research and innovation,” it says on the QS Top Universities website. 

Zooming in on the different ranking criteria, the Flanders-based university achieved its highest scores for its: 

• international research network (99.1)
• citations per faculty (92.7)
• international faculty ratio (91.9) 
• academic reputation (83.8)

Besides QS, KU Leuven also ranks high in other international scoreboards. Last year, the university came in at number 42 in the 2021 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. And for several recent years in a row, Reuters has named KU Leuven Europe’s most innovative university and the 7th-most innovative worldwide. 

The QS World University Rankings is an annual ranking of about 900 higher education institutions selected from a group of around 3500 institutions worldwide. The ranking is based largely on reputation surveys of the international research community (40% weighting) and employers (10%). In addition, the teacher-student ratio (20%), the number of citations (20%) as well as the presence of international researchers (5%) and international students (5%) are also taken into account. 

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