QS World University Rankings 2026: Best ranking ever for BUT

Quacquarelli Symonds World University Ranking (QS WUR), one of the three most closely watched university quality rankings, has announced its latest results. Brno University of Technology has reached the 575th position in the strong competition of 8,500 institutions worldwide. This is the best result since 2013, when BUT first appeared in the ranking. It is also the first placement at a unique individual position, rather than one shared with several other institutions. The success came mainly thanks to a shift in the sustainability sub-score.


BUT Rector's Office - Illustrative photo | Author: BUT archives

In last year's QS WUR ranking, BUT ranked between 611th and 620th place, placing it among the top 41% of educational institutions in the world. This also meant 5th place among Czech universities. This year’s result represents a jump of 36 places up, placement among the top 38% of institutions globally, and 4th place among Czech representatives.

Among the evaluation criteria, the most significant appears to be the improvement in the Sustainability score (5% of the total mark) based on a separate ranking, in which BUT improved by almost 450 places by the end of 2024. Improvements, though less pronounced, also occurred in the main criteria with the highest weight, such as Academic Reputation (30% of the total score), Citations per Faculty (20%), or Employer Reputation (15%).

Other assessment criteria also include the Faculty Student Ratio (10%), the institution's activity in establishing international research partnerships (International Research Network – 5%), its attractiveness for the international academic environment (International Faculty – 5%), and the proportion of international students (International Students – 5%). BUT also improved in these categories.

The summary of these evaluations led to a total score of 29.1 compared to last year’s 20.1. A flawlessly rated institution would score 100.

“We are very pleased with this year’s result in what is probably the most globally respected university ranking. The results confirm that our efforts toward the systematic development of the university aimed at strengthening quality, excellence, and competitiveness in areas of technological education and research, but also in arts and architecture, as well as our active engagement in international university associations or the European university alliance, which we have been chairing for a year, have brought concrete outcomes. The ranking recognized our advancement in internationalization and the growing number of foreign students and academics, where we significantly exceed the Czech average. For the first time, our work in the field of sustainability was also reflected, where thanks to a systematic approach, adopted and implemented strategy, we achieved an excellent result. There are certainly more challenges ahead, especially in strengthening international visibility and communicating the results achieved in science and research to improve indicators such as academic reputation or citation rates of our scientific publications,“ commented the university’s rector Ladislav Janíček and continued:

“The current ranking results are confirmation for us that we are on the right track and serve as a valuable guide for our future strategic decision-making. I believe that thanks to the growing quality of the outcomes of our academic and research staff and students, we have great potential to further strengthen our position in international rankings. I am justifiably proud of our academic and research staff and of all those who support their work. I am also proud of our students, who through their results and activities, whether in creative work or various forms of representation, create a positive image of our university. I thank them all very much.“

Among Czech universities, the best performers were Charles University (265th place), Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU, 416th place), and Masaryk University (430th place). BUT followed right behind. Together with CTU, it is one of only two Czech universities that improved in the QS WUR 2026 ranking. More on the performance of Czech universities in this year’s ranking can be read on the Vědavýzkum.cz portal.

The absolute winner of the ranking for the 14th consecutive year is the American Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The best European university is Imperial College London (2nd place), ahead of Stanford University in 3rd place. From continental Europe, the best performer is ETH Zurich (7th place).

This year's ranking involved a record 8,467 institutions from 106 countries. Of these, 1,501 institutions were selected for the ranking, including 112 newcomers. A total of 200 million citations, 1.5 million academic nominations, and 520,000 employer nominations were used for the assessment.

More information can be found on the Quacquarelli Symonds website in the World University Rankings section.

Last year’s QS WUR results in the news section of the BUT website

Source: VUT.cz/en

 

Responsible person Ing. Zdeňka Koubová
Date of publication