Research in numbers

The Times Higher Education Ranking (THE) is an international league table that ranks universities based on 17 performance metrics that are clustered into five core indicators: teaching (the learning environment), research environment (volume, income and reputation), research quality (influence en excellence), industry income (knowledge transfer) and international outlook (staff, students and research).
Every year, the Times Higher Education publishes its main ranking, the World University Ranking, that ranks universities worldwide. Additionally, a number of subrankings are published every year. These subrankings focus on universities with similar profiles (e.g. age, size, etc.).

Hasselt University in the THE Rankings

In edition 2025-2026 Hasselt University was ranked in the Times Higher Education - World University Ranking in section 301-350 of the best universities worldwide.

Hasselt University was also ranked in the following subrankings of the Times Higher Education Ranking. These are the results for 2025; the results for 2026 are not yet known: 

• # 201-250 of the best universities worldwide in the field of “Life Sciences”
• # 201-250 of the best universities worldwide in the field of “Clinical and Health”
• # 401-500 of the best universities worldwide in the field of “Business and Economics”
• # 401-500 of the best universities worldwide in the field of “Computer Science”
• # 501-600 of the best universities worldwide in the field of “Engineering”
• # 601-800 of the best universities worldwide in the field of “Physical Sciences"

The Quacquarelli Symonds ranking (QS) ranking is, similar to the Shanghai ranking and the Times Higher Education ranking, a “league table” ranking that ranks universities worldwide based on a number of indicators, i.e. academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty/student ratio, number of citations per faculty, proportion of international faculty and the proportion of international students. Characteristic for the QS ranking is the high weight that is given to reputation surveys (50%) in the calculation of the ranking.

Every year, the QS ranking publishes its main ranking, the QS World University rankings, in which the best 1000 universities worldwide are ranked. In addition, the QS also offers numerous subrankings that rank specific groups of universities (e.g. based on age, geographical location, etc.).

One of these subrankings is the QS Sustainability Ranking. This ranking assesses social and environmental sustainability performance of higher education institutions. The QS Sustainability Ranking uses 9 indicators, which cover 3 main categories:

• Environmental Impact (Education, Research, and Sustainability)
• Social Impact (Employability and Outcomes, Equality, Health & Wellbeing, Impact of Education, and Knowledge Exchange)
• Good Governance

Hasselt University in the QS Rankings

Hasselt University appeared for the fifth time in the QS World University Rankings in edition 2025 and was ranked on position 554 of the best universities worldwide.

For the QS Sustainability Ranking, Hasselt University was ranked on position 448 of the best universities worldwide this year.