Ten Dutch universities can be found this year in the top 200 universities in the world. The Netherlands is the only European country to have ten universities in the top 200. It is the second time that the top 200 list has been published by the renowned Times Higher Education Supplement.

The highest ranking Dutch university was Delft University of Technology in 53rd place. This means that Delft has now overtaken Erasmus University Rotterdam, which itself climbed from 64th to 57th place. Still in first place is the so far unbeaten Harvard.

Taking third place amongst Dutch universities is the Universiteit van Amsterdam in 58th position. Eindhoven has climbed to 70th place and Wageningen enters the top 200 for the first time in 108th place. The University of Utrecht is a non-mover at 120 and Leiden University is at 138. These are followed by Maastricht University, Radboud University Nijmegen and the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.

This hit parade of higher education institutions is based on the opinions of more than 2,000 academics. Critics consider the league table as controversial because, when asked, researchers tend to favour their own country.

For the first time, the ranking also takes into account the opinions of the recruiters of international companies. They were asked which graduates they would prefer to hire. (Source: Transfer, December 2005)