Rankings: The 12 best universities in Hungary for 2024/2025
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Hungary looks back at a long and colourful history of higher education and academic research. And there is a long tradition of teaching in foreign languages, primarily English. International students are drawn to Hungary for its attractive combination of top-quality education at relatively low tuition fees and cost of living.
With respectable ranks among the top 200 universities in Europe, the University of Szeged (SZTE), Semmelsweis University and Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) are considered the best universities in Hungary. Very respectable results for the small Central European country of just 10 million people!
| University | QS Ranking 2024 | THE Ranking 2024 | ARWU Ranking 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of Szeged | 601 | 1001 | 701 |
| University of Debrecen | 671 | 601 | – |
| Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) | 701 | 801 | 501 |
| Budapest University of Technology and Economics | 741 | 1201 | 901 |
| University of Pécs | 801 | 1001 | – |
| Corvinus University of Budapest | 1001 | – | – |
| Széchenyi István University | 1001 | 1501 | – |
| Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences | 1001 | 1201 | – |
| Óbuda University | 1201 | 1001 | – |
| University of Miskolc | 1201 | 1501 | – |
| University of Pannonia | 1201 | 1501 | – |
| Semmelweis University | – | 251 | 601 |
The QS World University Rankings are among the most important, most-referenced rankings. The QS ranking relies heavily on its academic survey, asking thousands of academics worldwide about the reputation of universities.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings (or the THE Rankings for short) compile a wide range of statistics. Equal weight is put on teaching quality, research excellence, and research impact through citations (meaning how often a university’s research is referenced elsewhere).
The Academic Ranking of World Universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University (often just Shanghai Ranking, or ARWU) focuses on research output and quality, for example measured by the number of published and cited scientific papers and the number of staff or alumni winning the Nobel Prize or Fields Medal.
From its glorious capital Budapest to its beautiful nature, Hungary offers a wealth of experiences to international students. Dozens of universities offer degree programmes in English at reasonable tuition fees.
Read more about studying in Hungary
