Muireann Duffy

Trinity College Dublin has been ranked as the top Irish university in Europe, with five other Irish colleges named in the top 200.

The annual QS European University Rankings for 2025 were published on Wednesday, naming ETH Zurich in Switzerland as the top university in Europe, achieving an overall score of 100.

British universities took each spot from second to 8th, namely; Imperial College London, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, UCL in London, University of Edinburgh, University of Manchester, and King’s College London.

The top 10 was rounded out by Université PSL in Paris and EPFL in Switzerland.

Trinity was ranked 26th in Europe, with an overall score of 83.4, while University College Dublin achieved the next highest ranking for an Irish university, with 51.

University of Galway and University College Cork each maintained their positions from last year, remaining at 98th and 105th respectively, while University of Limerick climbed seven spots to 145th.

Dublin City University (152nd), Maynooth University (289th) and Technological University Dublin (296) each held their positions from last year.

The research examined 685 third-level institutions across Europe, considering 12 performance indicators, including academic reputation, employer reputation, employment outcomes, and papers per faculty.

As a whole, Irish universities placed second in terms of employer reputation, coming in with an average score of 56, just a shade behind the Netherlands (56.2).