Top Universities for Economics in 2020

215 of the world’s best economics and econometrics schools can be found in Europe. Of these, 50 are situated in the United Kingdom, including three in the top ten. Outside of the top ten, notable universities include UCL (University College London, 17^th), the University of Warwick (rising three places to joint 25^th) and London Business School (climbing six places to joint 30^th).

Germany performs well this year in the economics and economics schools ranking, with 23 universities and four in the world top 100. Of these, the top ranking is Universität Mannheim in joint 45^th place. Spain also performs well, with 16 of Europe’s top economics and econometrics schools situated there, and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid rising an impressive five places to joint 45^th this year.

France is home to 14 of the economics and econometrics universities in this year’s rankings, with new entrant, Paris School of Economics, stealing the top place in France (ranking 38^th).  The Netherlands claim ten top economics universities in the rankings this year including five in the top 100, with top placing Tilburg University climbing five places this year to joint 36^th position. 

Belgium performs well this year, with three of its six universities in the top 100 in the world: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) and Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB).

The highest ranked economics and econometrics program outside of the UK and US can be found in Italy at Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi (16^th). Italy currently has 21 universities in this year’s ranking.

Switzerland is home to eight of the best economics schools in the world, with University of Zurich (up one place to 32^nd) and ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, 33^rd). Stockholm School of Economics (joint 41^st) is one of Sweden’s seven universities in the economics and econometrics university rankings.

Australia has 22 of the best universities in the world for economics and econometrics. Of these, five are in the worldwide top 50, including the University of Melbourne (23^rd), Australian National University (ANU, joint 30^th), The University of New South Wales (UNSW, 34^th), the University of Sydney (joint 36^th) and Monash University (39^th).

New Zealand has seven of the world’s best economics and econometrics courses, with the University of Auckland ranking highest in New Zealand, in 51-100^th place in the world.

Asia is home to 94 of the world’s best universities to study economics and econometrics. Mainland China claims the majority of these, with 23 top schools featuring, and two in the world top 50: Peking University (joint 25^th) and Tsinghua University (28^th).

South Korea and Taiwan both perform well with each having ten economics schools in the rankings this year. Of these, South Korea’s Seoul National University (SNU) performs the best, remaining in the world top 50 despite dropping two places this year to 48^th. South Korea’s Korea University and Taiwan’s National Taiwan University (NTU) both score well, and are both in the world top 100.

Japan has the second highest number of universities in Asia, with 14 universities in the rankings this year. The University of Tokyo is the highest ranked of these, in joint 25^th place despite dropping two places this year.

Singapore is home to three top universities to study economics, with all three in the world top 100, including National University of Singapore (NUS) in 18^th place – the only other program in the top 20 outside of the UK and US aside from Italy’s Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi (16^th).

Hong Kong performs well this year, with three of its six economics universities in the world top 50. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) performs best for economics and econometrics in 29^th place, followed by University of Hong Kong (HKU, 40^th) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK, 47^th).

Top universities for economics in Latin America  

There are 25 Latin American universities in the world rankings for economics schools. The majority of these are located in Brazil, where there are eight top universities offering excellent economics courses. The highest ranked of these eight is Fundação Getulio Vargas

in 101-150^th and ranking highly in the research citations per paper indicator.

Colombia is home to five economics programs in the rankings, Argentina has four, Mexico and Chile each have three entrants, and Uruguay and Peru both have single entrants in the economics rankings.

Africa is home to seven top universities for economics and econometrics. Five of these are situated in South Africa, and two are in Egypt. Of the universities in South Africa, University of Pretoria (251-300) and Stellenbosch University (301-350) have both risen up to 50 places in the rankings this year. Egypt sees new entrant, the American University in Cairo, introduced to the rankings this year in 451-500^th place.

The Middle East has eight universities in the rankings this year. Israel‘s Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University rank the highest in the Middle East, both in the top 200 worldwide. Saudi Arabia claims two top economics universities and the United Arab Emirates University (451-500^th) is the United Arab Emirates’ sole entry. Iran and Israel each have one entry, and Iran’s University of Tehran is a new entrant in the rankings this year, coming in in 601-650^th place.