Rankings: The 7 best universities in Norway for 2025/2026
by Laszlo Ilyes, , modified
Norway is an extremely popular country for international students: Norwegian universities are world-class, the country offers an exciting mix of modern urban life and wild, untamed nature, and for students from the EU/EEA, tuition is even free - which makes up for the very high cost of living.
And for a small country of just over 5 million people, Norway achieves respectable positions in university rankings. The top university is usually the University of Oslo, often among the best 100 institutions in the world; closely followed by the University of Bergen and the well-renowned Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
| University | QS Ranking 2025 | THE Ranking 2025 | ARWU Ranking 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of Oslo | 119 | 116 | 72 |
| Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) | 264 | – | 151 |
| University of Bergen | 291 | 251 | 201 |
| University of Troms淡 The Arctic University of Norway | 621 | 601 | 501 |
| Norwegian University of Life Sciences | 691 | 801 | 701 |
| University of Stavanger | 801 | 601 | – |
| Western Norway University of Applied Sciences | – | – | 901 |
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 universitys 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.
Known for its stunningly beautiful coastlines, Norway is also one of the countries with the highest quality of life. Norway’s universities offer high-quality education, and there are hundreds of English-taught study programmes in this small country. And although the cost of living is probably higher than anywhere else in Europe, tuition is free for students from the EU/EEA.
Read more about studying in Norway
