British Ranking: TU Delft is the most international university in the Netherlands

Based on data published in last September’s World University Ranking 2018, the THE published a ranking of the world’s most international universities. Aside from the number of foreign students and teachers, the percentage of scientific publications that had at least one foreign author also counted, as well as the university’s reputation abroad.

Switzerland in the lead
Based on these criteria, which were each good for 25 percent of the final score, Switzerland is at the top of the list, followed by Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK and Australia. These five countries are home to the ten most international universities in the world. The THE says they are open to foreign students and scientists, and international collaboration is very important to them.

Of all Dutch universities, TU Delft scores the highest. The university is number 63 in the yearly THE ranking, but in terms of internationalization it ranks at number 18, followed by Rotterdam’s Erasmus University at 42 and the University of Amsterdam at 62. Utrecht University ranks at number 85.

Maastricht doesn’t meet the minimum requirements
Dutch internationalization organization Nuffic also ranked the most international educational institutions recently. They gave Maastricht University the highest score by far, with no less than 58 percent international students.

But where Nuffic only looked at the percentage of international students, THE also considered other factors, such as international reputation. Phil Baty, responsible for the rankings, explains when asked that Maastricht didn’t meet the minimum criteria to be included in the ranking. “Maastricht is a strong, international university, but our algorithms just barely wouldn’t allow it. We had to draw the line somewhere.”

In the selection, THE also looked at where the institutions were located. The fact that Maastricht is close to the Belgian and German borders, was likely detrimental to its status here. THE wanted to avoid assigning high scores to universities that had many students from neighboring countries solely because they’re located close to the borders of that neighboring country, and therefore focused more on internationally oriented institutions with a ‘global footprint’.

Maastricht University declined to comment.

Vertaling: Indra Spronk