The Netherlands University Research Rankings
Compare The Netherlands universities using recent research output, citation impact, growth and a transparent research-performance score.
Research landscape
The current ITS Research Intelligence dataset contains 57 index-ready universities in The Netherlands. Across those institutions, the average five-year research output is approximately 10,511 works and the average five-year citation count is approximately 125,559. The average publication-growth signal is 26.7%. These figures describe the institutions that pass the public quality gate; they are not intended to represent every tertiary institution in the country.
Country rankings are useful for benchmarking because they reduce some of the structural differences that make global comparisons difficult. They still should not be treated as a complete assessment of institutional quality: teaching, student outcomes, funding levels, research field mix and institutional mission are outside this research-performance score. The value of the page is in seeing who is producing research, how that activity is changing, and where citation visibility is concentrated.
Top research universities in The Netherlands
| Rank | University | Country | Score | 5-year works | 5-year citations | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | University of Amsterdam | The Netherlands | 86.2 | 63,870 | 976,160 | 4.7% |
| #2 | University of Groningen | The Netherlands | 85.2 | 51,696 | 715,580 | -4.5% |
| #3 | Radboud University Nijmegen | The Netherlands | 84.9 | 58,188 | 712,942 | 0.3% |
| #4 | Utrecht University | The Netherlands | 84.7 | 59,350 | 732,152 | 8.0% |
| #5 | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam | The Netherlands | 83.4 | 48,016 | 576,499 | 15.0% |
| #6 | Wageningen University & Research | The Netherlands | 83.1 | 43,118 | 540,044 | 11.5% |
| #7 | Maastricht University | The Netherlands | 82.1 | 42,832 | 470,595 | 7.7% |
| #8 | Delft University of Technology | The Netherlands | 81.9 | 51,175 | 521,180 | 12.5% |
| #9 | Leiden University | The Netherlands | 81.8 | 34,624 | 403,601 | 11.6% |
| #10 | Erasmus University Rotterdam | The Netherlands | 80.9 | 28,325 | 331,663 | 6.1% |
| #11 | Eindhoven University of Technology | The Netherlands | 78.6 | 24,983 | 255,853 | 13.5% |
| #12 | University of Twente | The Netherlands | 78.2 | 25,812 | 251,946 | 7.2% |
| #13 | Oncode Institute | The Netherlands | 75.7 | 5,349 | 145,201 | -0.1% |
| #14 | Tilburg University | The Netherlands | 72.3 | 12,940 | 100,750 | 14.6% |
| #15 | Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences | The Netherlands | 72.0 | 7,377 | 73,765 | 41.7% |
| #16 | University of Applied Sciences Utrecht | The Netherlands | 69.3 | 4,775 | 44,957 | 51.2% |
| #17 | Academic Center for Dentistry Amsterdam | The Netherlands | 69.1 | 2,415 | 30,620 | 7.9% |
| #18 | University of Applied Sciences Leiden | The Netherlands | 69.1 | 3,121 | 30,622 | 95.0% |
| #19 | IHE Delft Institute for Water Education | The Netherlands | 68.0 | 3,086 | 32,773 | -34.1% |
| #20 | Open University of the Netherlands | The Netherlands | 67.6 | 3,502 | 32,648 | 26.3% |
| #21 | Amsterdam University of the Arts | The Netherlands | 65.0 | 1,134 | 11,511 | 28.5% |
| #22 | Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences | The Netherlands | 63.7 | 1,811 | 12,800 | 34.3% |
| #23 | Maastricht School of Management | The Netherlands | 62.7 | 1,201 | 11,433 | 25.5% |
| #24 | HAN University of Applied Sciences | The Netherlands | 62.5 | 1,740 | 15,317 | 33.3% |
| #25 | Amsterdam University College | Netherlands | 62.0 | 584 | 7,709 | 107.7% |
| #26 | Hanze University of Applied Sciences | The Netherlands | 61.4 | 1,576 | 12,901 | 16.8% |
| #27 | The Hague University of Applied Sciences | Netherlands | 59.6 | 1,546 | 10,398 | 46.4% |
| #28 | Tinbergen Institute | The Netherlands | 59.2 | 1,422 | 8,525 | -11.9% |
| #29 | Zuyd University of Applied Sciences | The Netherlands | 58.2 | 726 | 6,320 | -3.1% |
| #30 | Nyenrode Business University | Netherlands | 58.1 | 719 | 5,182 | 92.0% |
| #31 | Breda University of Applied Sciences | The Netherlands | 56.9 | 650 | 4,789 | 53.4% |
| #32 | Avans University of Applied Sciences | The Netherlands | 56.3 | 664 | 5,021 | 26.9% |
| #33 | Fontys University of Applied Sciences | The Netherlands | 55.9 | 1,097 | 6,647 | 14.8% |
| #34 | Codarts Rotterdam | The Netherlands | 54.5 | 382 | 4,132 | 6.5% |
| #35 | Inholland University of Applied Sciences | The Netherlands | 54.4 | 656 | 4,283 | 44.6% |
| #36 | TiFN | Netherlands | 54.4 | 282 | 4,692 | -18.7% |
| #37 | Medicines Evaluation Board | Netherlands | 54.2 | 371 | 3,757 | 34.4% |
| #38 | University of Humanistic Studies | The Netherlands | 53.8 | 778 | 5,060 | 17.1% |
| #39 | Saxion | The Netherlands | 51.7 | 893 | 4,022 | 32.4% |
| #40 | Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences | The Netherlands | 51.2 | 423 | 2,760 | 53.5% |
| #41 | Windesheim University of Applied Sciences | The Netherlands | 51.1 | 575 | 3,004 | 25.0% |
| #42 | European Graduate School of Neuroscience | Netherlands | 50.2 | 125 | 7,321 | 13.6% |
| #43 | University of the Arts Utrecht | The Netherlands | 49.0 | 380 | 2,725 | 34.9% |
| #44 | Terra | The Netherlands | 48.9 | 2,224 | 2,592 | 21.5% |
| #45 | Transnational University Limburg | Netherlands | 48.1 | 170 | 725 | 265.5% |
| #46 | TIAS School for Business and Society | Netherlands | 46.8 | 267 | 2,261 | 13.9% |
| #47 | HZ University of Applied Sciences | The Netherlands | 46.4 | 238 | 2,630 | -25.5% |
| #48 | Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology | Netherlands | 46.0 | 228 | 1,370 | 79.7% |
| #49 | Expertise Center Vocational Education | Netherlands | 43.1 | 161 | 1,024 | 56.9% |
| #50 | HAS green academy | The Netherlands | 42.6 | 195 | 1,588 | 4.6% |
| #51 | Aeres University of Applied Sciences | The Netherlands | 40.9 | 174 | 1,359 | 15.4% |
| #52 | Protestant Theological University | The Netherlands | 40.8 | 437 | 760 | -10.2% |
| #53 | Viaa Christian University of Applied Sciences | The Netherlands | 40.0 | 110 | 601 | 73.5% |
| #54 | Theological University of Apeldoorn | The Netherlands | 38.9 | 180 | 1,301 | -6.5% |
| #55 | Christian University of Applied Sciences | The Netherlands | 37.5 | 151 | 685 | 11.9% |
| #56 | Dutch Research School for Medieval Studies | The Netherlands | 30.5 | 177 | 27 | 33.3% |
| #57 | Theological University Utrecht | The Netherlands | 29.0 | 135 | 78 | -17.2% |
Research fields where The Netherlands universities rank
Number of The Netherlands universities in the top 100 of each ITS research-field ranking.
How ITS Research Score v3 is constructed
One formula applies to every index-ready institution, using the five most recent complete calendar years: 25% research output, 25% citations, 20% h-index and 5% i10-index (log-normalized so the largest universities do not dominate linearly), 15% citation impact (the institution’s percentile on citations per work, reduced below 500 works so small samples cannot win by chance), 5% publication growth and 5% international-collaboration share. When collaboration data is not yet available, the other weights are rescaled.
Data-quality controls: the unfinished current year is never counted, and a year in which recorded output jumps to more than three times the institution’s usual level while being at least 90% open access is treated as a bulk dataset or repository deposit and scored at the usual level. An affiliation check also removes institutions whose papers mostly do not name them in the author address (OpenAlex sometimes assigns a large university’s papers to a namesake school or college). Raw data are kept and every adjustment is logged. Open-access share and topic diversity are published as separate rankings and do not affect the main score. Citation impact is not field-normalized.
These indicators assess research activity only. They do not measure teaching quality, student experience, employability, reputation, finances or accreditation. Missing data are left missing rather than fabricated.