A total of 30 European universities feature in the top 100 of the latest Academic Ranking of World Universities, known as the Shanghai ranking, which was published today (15 August).
This amount represents a decrease from the 33 institutions that made it into the top 100 last year. The only European universities in the top 20 are located in the UK, with Cambridge at number 5 and Oxford at number 10.
Overall, the UK does best among European nations, with nine British universities featuring in the top 100. Other European representatives come from Germany, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, and Scandinavian countries.
The rankings, compiled by the Shanghai Jiatong university according to research capacity, remain dominated by US institutions, which make up with 17 of the top 20 universities and 53 of the top 100.
German institutions see a dip in performance from 2011. The Technical University Munich has fallen from 47 to 53 and the University of Munich from 54 to 60.
Switzerland has four universities in the top 100: the Swiss federal institute of technology Zurich (23), which is the highest-ranked non-anglophone European university, as well as the Universities of Zurich (59), Geneva (69) and Basel (85).
Worldwide, Israel now has three institutions in the top 100, two more than in 2011. Australia has increased its tally to five, overtaking Germany and Japan.