Riga Technical University (RTU) has been ranked 721-730 in the «QS World University Rankings 2025», the highest among the three Latvian universities included in the ranking. The highest rated positions are the proportion of foreign students at the university and RTU's reputation among employers.
The «QS World University Rankings 2025» assess universities on nine criteria - academic reputation, employer reputation, citation rate, student to academic staff ratio, proportion of international students and international faculty, graduate employment, international research networks and contribution to sustainability.
RTU's best performance, rising 45 places to 203rd, was achieved by its share of foreign students. Internationalisation is one of the key priorities of RTU and it is planned to continue to make qualitative changes in attracting foreign students, especially in higher level studies. The ratio of students to academic staff has also increased by 35 positions, confirming the first results in the modernisation of RTU study process, including attracting more and more talented young people in STEM fields.
RTU has improved its performance in the graduate employment position by 90 places compared to last year. This criterion, together with the employer reputation indicator, confirms the relevance of RTU study programmes to the labour market requirements of both local and foreign employers and is important for the university's development perspective, as the share of graduates is one of the key indicators of RTU performance.
«The results of the ranking confirm RTU's positive progress and growth, gradually approaching the top of the world's best universities. With the support of the RTU Council, the university is ambitiously implementing change at all levels in line with the goals set by the Council. The management system is being optimised in order to direct resources more towards promoting scientific excellence, the study process is being modernised and made more efficient, and particular attention is being paid to innovation and cooperation with industry so that the knowledge created at RTU is transformed into technologies of global scale,» emphasises RTU Rector Tālis Juhna.
RTU has been the leading university in Latvia in the QS World University Rankings for several years. The University of Latvia is also ranked 781-790 and Riga Stradiņš University is ranked 951-1000.
The highest ranked universities in the Baltics are the University of Tartu (358th place) and Vilnius University (439th place), while Tallinn University of Technology is ranked 621-630, Vytautas Magnus University 741-750, Kaunas University of Technology 751-760, and Tallinn University 1001-1200. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is in first place, King's College London in second place and Oxford University in third place. In total, 1503 universities in 106 countries were ranked this year.
