KU Leuven in top five of world's most innovative universities

After prolonging its title of Europe's most innovative university in May, a new Reuters ranking now shows that the university belongs to the European as well as the global elite. KU Leuven ranks fifth – four places higher than last year. Only the following American universities have a better reputation for innovation: Stanford University, MIT, Harvard, and University of Pennsylvania.

Reuters describes KU Leuven as follows:

“The highest ranked university outside the US, Belgium’s KU Leuven (#5), is a nearly 600-year-old institution that maintains one of the largest independent research and development organisations on the planet.”

Ten parameters related to research output are used to determine each institution's final score. These include articles in scientific journals as well as patent applications, which a university can use to protect and commercialise its research results.

“This result is an incentive,” says Rector Luc Sels. “It indicates that our university is not just a place for intellectual debate, research-driven education and ground-breaking fundamental research, but that we also contribute a great deal to innovation and valorisation, and, as such, to the socioeconomic development of our society.

Making up the top 5 together with Stanford, MIT, Harvard, and University of Pennsylvania motivates us to focus on our strengths even more: the combination of fundamental and applied research, supported by KU Leuven Research & Development – a world-class tech transfer office.”

The full top ten

1. Stanford University (US)
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT (US)
3. Harvard University (US)
4. University of Pennsylvania (US)
5. KU Leuven (Belgium)
6. KAIST (South Korea)
7. University of Washington (US)
8. University of Michigan System (US)
9. University of Texas System (US)
10. Vanderbilt University (US)

Source: KU Leuven