Top Ranked Universities in Sweden 2017 - A Postgraduate Guide

Sweden can rightly claim to be one of the most innovative and forward-thinking countries in Europe. As the home of the Nobel Prize, the country has a long history of recognising and valuing intellectual excellence. Meanwhile, Swedish ingenuity lies behind some of the modern world's most iconic businesses, brands and services: from Ikea to Volvo and from Spotify to Skype.

Sweden's universities have played a key role in supporting and underpinning many of these achievements, but just how well do they do on the global stage?

The answer may surprise you. Despite only having 35 universities, Sweden's historic higher education institutions are represented in all major university rankings.

This page summarises the results for Swedish universities in 2017.

Top Ranked Swedish Universities

The following table gives the 30 best universities in Sweden, according to global rankings.

This information is based on the latest rankings tables, researched and published by Times Higher Education, QS and the Academic Ranking of World Universities.

Each ranking system uses its own methodology, with different factors having more or less influence on a university's result.

For more information on using international rankings as a postgraduate, see our guide.

How do rankings work for Masters study?

International rankings use all sorts of metrics to assess universities and they aren't all equally relevant to postgraduate study. That's why we've put together a guide to university rankings for Masters students.

So, how good are Swedish universities for Masters study?

As the above table demonstrates, Sweden performs impressively in international tables. In fact, Sweden is one of only four European countries (and only six worldwide) to feature in the current Times Higher Education top 30. 11 Swedish institutions feature in the table overall. Not at all bad for a country with less than 10 million people.

Search for a Masters in Sweden

Our database includes plenty of Swedish Masters degrees and our listings provide lots of helpful information about specific programmes. Why not take a look?

Swedish University Rankings by Subject

The global rankings above are a useful way to guage the overall performance of a country's universities, but they aren't specific to postgraduate study.

This means that they won't always reflect a university's performance and expertise in the highly advanced subjects you'll actually pursue during your Masters.

One way to get around this limitation is to use more targeted rankings that focus on specific subjects.

The following table lists the top Swedish universities in 8 broad subject areas. It's based on the Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject. This lists the best 100 universities in different academic fields, around the world.

As you can see, Swedish universities are amongst the very best in the world for subjects related to Biological and Life Sciences, Medicine, Health and other Clinical disciplines.

At the same time, it's worth noting that at least one of Sweden's 35 universities features in the top 100 for every single discipline in the Times Higher Education tables.