TUM best German university in QS ranking

In the current QS World University Rankings 2025, the Technical University of Munich (TUM) is once again the best German university, followed by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU).

TUM moved up nine places compared to last year, landing in 28th place worldwide, making it the top German university in the QS ranking for ten years in a row. It is also among the TOP 10 universities in Europe. Compared to other German universities, TUM is leading in the categories "employer reputation", "sustainability" and "international research network".

LMU reached an impressive 59th place worldwide (58th place in last year's ranking). The university is the leading German university when it comes to "employment outcomes" and "academic reputation".

As in previous years, the top 10 is dominated by US and British universities: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is unchallenged in first place, followed by the Imperial College London and the University of Oxford in second and third place.

All in all 48 German universities were included in the ranking, five of them reached the top 100 worldwide:

• TUM (28th place)
• LMU (59th place)
• Heidelberg University (84th place)
• FU Berlin (97th place)
• RWTH Aachen University (99th place).

According to the ranking, Germany has one of the most highly regarded higher education systems in Europe, especially among international employers as well as one of the largest teaching capacities in Europe, measured by the ratio of teaching staff to students. Germany is world leader in cross-border research and Europe's most productive research center.

The QS World University Rankings is a global university ranking that QS Quacquarelli Symonds has been conducting since 2004 t and is regarded as one of the most important rankings for universities worldwide. The methodology and data basis are developed together with Elsevier, one of the largest scientific publishers in the world.

This year’s ranking is the largest ever, featuring 1,500 universities across 105 higher education systems. It is based on the analysis of 17.5 million scientific publications and expert opinions from over 240,000 university members. For the first time, the indicators "sustainability", "employability" and "international networking" have also been included.