The results of the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings - an assessment of the world’s most prestigious universities - have just been released for 2020, and six higher education institutions in Germany have made it into the top 100, making the federal republic the joint third-best represented country. 

The THE World Reputation Rankings 2020

Every year, the British magazine Times Higher Education (THE) compiles a ranking of the universities with the best worldwide reputations - a complement to its World University Ranking, which was published earlier this year. 

While the latter considers a number of factors to determine each university’s score, the Reputation Ranking is assembled on the basis of an opinion survey of experienced, published academics. These scholars are asked to name no more than 15 universities that they believe are the best for research and teaching in their field. Their responses are used to determine the prestige of 200 universities worldwide. 

Ranking dominated by US universities

Once again, this year’s ranking is dominated by American institutions, with Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University retaining the top three places, unchanged since last year. 

In fact, only three non-US universities made it into the top 10: the UK’s University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford take fourth and fifth places, respectively, while the University of Tokyo has climbed one place to claim the number 10 spot. This makes it the only Asian university to rank inside the top 10. 

The most prestigious universities in Germany

The top-ranked place to study in Germany was Ludwig Maximilian University Munich (LMU Munich), which climbed one place since last year to rank 42nd overall (tied with the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland). 

The other top-rated universities in Germany all came outside the top 50: but Heidelberg University, Technical University of Munich, Humboldt University of Berlin, Free University of Berlin and RWTH Aachen University all managed to secure a top-100 spot. Overall, Germany had six universities in the top 100, and eight more inside the top 200 - proving that it can still provide educational excellence without charging tuition fees. Six Chinese universities also secured top-100 spots. 

You can see the full ranking on the THE website.