University of Latvia ranked highest in the country by QS Rankings Europe 2026

“The fact that the University of Latvia is the highest-ranked higher education institution of Latvia in the QS Rankings Europe 2026 confirms the correctness of the development path we have chosen – consistent investment in science, study quality and cooperation with the industry, which is promptly reflected in all indicators assessed in the rankings. This result is the joint work of our academic community, students and cooperation partners, at the same time representing a strong incentive to continue raising the bar even higher to endure that the University of Latvia is increasingly visible and influential in the European higher education area,” emphasizes UL Rector Prof. Gundars Bērziņš. 

This year, UL scores particularly high in the academic reputation, global engagement and papers per faculty, as well as in sustainability and graduate employability indicators. For several years, the University of Latvia has been recognized as the leading higher education institution of Latvia in the annual QS Sustainability Rankings, and the results of the rankings assessing European universities, where UL ranks 236^th in Europe – affirm the strong performance of UL in terms of social impact, environmental impact and governance. 

Regarding employability of graduates, which reflects the competitiveness of graduates in the labour market and the university’s cooperation with employers, Latvia’s leading university is among the leaders in Europe, with 99 out of 100 points, taking 25^th place overall. 

The QS World University Rankings: Europe assesses universities across 12 performance indicators. The University of Oxford has received the highest assessment, followed by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), while Imperial College London and University College London are tied for the third place. 

Among the higher education institutions of Latvia, the QS World University Rankings also include Riga Technical University (the 277^th place in Europe), Riga Stradiņš University (the 418^th place) and the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, which shares the 496^th place with other universities. Transport and Telecommunication Institute is in the group sharing the 591–600^th place, while the group which shares the 701–900^th place includes Daugavpils University, Ventspils University of Applied Sciences and Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences. 

In the context of the Baltic states, the highest position in the QS Rankings Europe 2026 is taken by the University of Tartu, which is in the shared 136^th place. It is followed by Vilnius University (the 184^th place) and Tallinn University of Technology, which shares the 230^th place with other universities.