Veterinary Sciences: The 2021 Ranking of the World's Top 50 Veterinary Schools Has Been Released

The list of the top 50 veterinary schools worldwide has just been released for the seventh consecutive year. Fifty of the world’s leading universities in the field of veterinary sciences—from 19 countries—are compared and ranked in the QS World University Rankings*. In Europe, France is still missing from the list: national veterinary schools remain absent from the top 50.

[2025 Rankings: Click here] 

A total of 51 different disciplines are included in the overall QS World University Rankings, and 85 locations are represented this year. International research collaboration was particularly strong in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, France, Hong Kong, Switzerland, and Singapore.

In the 2021 rankings of the world’s best veterinary schools, the Royal Veterinary College in London (United Kingdom) regains the top spot it held in 2019, ahead of UC Davis (California), which drops one spot to second place, as it did in 2019 (after topping the rankings from 2015 to 2018). The University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom) moves up three spots to take third place, its highest ranking since 2015. Utrecht University (Netherlands) drops one spot and ties for third place with the University of Edinburgh.

Once again this year, the United States leads the rankings of the best veterinary schools by a wide margin, with 17 universities in the top 50. Also in North America, Canada has three of its veterinary science universities ranked among the world’s top 50. The United Kingdom remains at the top among English-speaking countries outside North America: in addition to the four British universities ranked among the top 10, four others are in the top 50, for a total of eight.

In Europe, the Netherlands, Spain, and Germany each have two veterinary schools in the rankings. The eight other countries represented (Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Italy, Austria, Finland, and Switzerland) each have one institution ranked among the top 50. France, however, is still not among them…

In Oceania, the University of Sydney (16th, down four spots) is the highest-ranked of the four Australian institutions. New Zealand, still represented by Massey University, moves up nine spots to 19th place.

Brazil, the only Latin American country represented in the top 50, ranks 40th this year with the University of São Paulo, up eight places.

South Africa, which entered the rankings in 2019 with the University of Pretoria, has dropped out of the rankings in 2021.

Finally, two institutions are included from Asia: the University of Tokyo (Japan), which has climbed to 29th place in the top 50 (a gain of 14 spots), and Seoul National University (South Korea), which ranks 45th (down four places).

To measure the reputation and performance of a school or university, the QS Top Universities World Rankings are based on three components: academic reputation (extensive surveys of academics and faculty), graduate employability, and research impact (publications in the Scopus database). For the past seven years, another metric has been included: the h-index, which measures both the productivity and the impact of the work published by a scientist or scholar. It can also be applied to a group of scientists (a department, a university, a country) or to a scientific journal.  

2021 World University Rankings in Veterinary Sciences

1. Royal Veterinary College, University of London, United Kingdom (▲ 2nd in 2020, 1st in 2019, 3rd from 2015 to 2018)

2. University of California, Davis, United States (▼ 1st in 2020, 2nd in 2019, 1st from 2015 to 2018)

3. University of Utrecht, Netherlands (▲ 4th in 2020, 3rd in 2019, 5th in 2015 and 2018, 7th in 2016, 9th in 2017)

4. University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (▲ 6th in 2019 and 2020, 9th in 2015, 11th in 2016, 8th in 2017 and 2018)

5. Cornell University, United States (▼ 3rd in 2020, 5th in 2019, 2nd from 2015 to 2018)

6. University of Guelph, Canada (═ 5th in 2020, 7th in 2018 and 2019, 4th in 2015, 8th in 2016, 6th in 2017)

7. Ohio State University, United States (▲ 13th in 2020, 8th in 2019, 25th in 2015, 22nd in 2016, 18th in 2017, 16th in 2018)

8. University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (═ 7th in 2020, 4th from 2016 to 2019, 8th in 2015)

9. University of Copenhagen, Denmark (▲ 15th in 2019, 17th in 2015, 10th in 2016 and 2020, 13th in 2017, 19th in 2018)

10. , University of Bern and Zurich, Switzerland (▲ 8th in 2020, 21st in 2019, 6th in 2015, 25th in 2016, unranked in 2017, 28th in 2018)

11. University of Glasgow, United Kingdom (▲ 12th in 2019, 7th in 2015, 16th in 2016, 17th in 2017 and 2020, 14th in 2018)

12. Michigan State University, United States (▼ 8th in 2020, 11th in 2018 and 2019, 21st in 2015, 15th in 2016, 12th in 2017)

13. University of Ghent, Belgium (▼ 11th in 2020, 13th in 2019, 27th in 2015, 20th in 2016 and 2017, 17th in 2018)

14. University of Bristol, United Kingdom (▲ 15th in 2020, 19th in 2019, 11th in 2015 and 2016, 25th in 2017, 20th in 2018)

15. Colorado State University, United States (▲ 21st in 2020, 23rd in 2019, 13th in 2015 and 2016, 19th in 2017, 18th in 2018)

16. University of Pennsylvania, United States (▲ 20th in 2020, 18th in 2019, 19th in 2015, 4th in 2016, 7th in 2017, 6th in 2018)

17. University of Sydney, Australia (▼ 12th in 2020, 9th in 2016 and 2019, 11th in 2015, 2017, and 2018)

18. Wageningen University, Netherlands (▲ 15th in 2017 and 2019, 16th in 2015, 19th in 2016 and 2020, 13th in 2018)

19. University of Melbourne, Australia (▼ 16th in 2020, 17th in 2019, 28th in 2015, 18th in 2016, 15th in 2017 and 2018)

20. Massey University, New Zealand (▲ 28th in 2020, 29th in 2019, 15th in 2015, 25th in 2016, 23rd in 2017 and 2018)

21. University of Minnesota, United States (▼ 13th in 2015 and 2019, 28th in 2016, 14th in 2017 and 2020, 22nd in 2018)

22. University of Liverpool, United Kingdom (▼ 18th in 2020, 9th in 2015, 2018, and 2019, 6th in 2016, 5th in 2017)

23. University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States (▲ 23rd in 2020, 26th in 2019, 24th in 2015, 27th in 2016, 22nd in 2017, 30th in 2018)

24. University College Dublin, Ireland (▲ 32nd in 2020, 26th in 2019, 40th in 2015, 31st in 2016, 29th in 2017, 24th in 2018)

25. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany (▲ 30th in 2020, 25th in 2015 and 2019, 23rd in 2016, 25th in 2017 and 2018)

26. Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain (▲ 30th in 2019, 23rd in 2015, 21st in 2016, 33rd in 2017, 31st in 2018 and 2020)

27. University of Queensland, Australia (▲ 28th in 2020, 33rd in 2019, 22nd in 2015, 29th in 2016, 32nd in 2017, 38th in 2018)

28. Iowa State University, United States (▼ 24th in 2019 and 2020, 35th in 2015, 41st in 2016, 39th in 2017, 40th in 2018)

29. University of Florida, United States (▲ 39th in 2019 and 2020, 17th in 2015, 24th in 2016, 31st in 2017, 35th in 2018)

30. University of Georgia, United States (▲ 42nd in 2019, 31st in 2015, 40th in 2016, 43rd in 2017, 37th in 2018 and 2020)

31. University of Tokyo, Japan (▲ 43rd in 2019 and 2020, 34th in 2017, 42nd in 2018)

32. Free University of Berlin, Germany (▲ 33rd in 2020, 35th in 2019, 44th in 2016, 34th in 2017, 26th in 2018)

33. North Carolina State University, United States (▼ 22nd in 2020, 26th in 2019, 20th in 2015, 17th in 2016, 21st in 2017, 27th in 2018)

34. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden (▼ 27th in 2020, 22nd in 2019, 43rd in 2015, 30th in 2016, 28th in 2017, 21st in 2018)

35. University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Austria (▼ 25th in 2020, 31st in 2019, 33rd in 2015 and 2018, 36th in 2016, 37th in 2017)

36. Complutense University of Madrid, Spain (▼ 34th in 2019 and 2020, 50th in 2015, 43rd in 2016, 39th in 2017, 33rd in 2018)

37. University of Nottingham, United Kingdom (═ 36th in 2019 and 2020, 45th in 2015, 35th in 2016, 29th in 2017 and 2018)

38. University of Calgary, Canada (▲ 42nd in 2020, 47th in 2019, 49th in 2017, 48th in 2018)

39. University of Helsinki, Finland (▲ 45th in 2020, 49th in 2019)

40. University of Milan, Italy (▲ 45th in 2020, 48th in 2019, 47th in 2016, unranked in 2017, 49th in 2018)

41. University of São Paulo, Brazil (▲ 48th in 2020, unranked in 2019, 36th in 2015, 38th in 2016 and 2017, 47th in 2018)

42. University of Montreal, Canada (▲ 43rd in 2020, 46th in 2019, 42nd in 2015, 44th in 2016, 48th in 2017, 49th in 2018)

43. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom (▼ 40th in 2020)

44. Washington State University, United States (▼ 38th in 2019 and 2020, 37th in 2015, 39th in 2016, 34th in 2017, 41st in 2018)

45. Seoul National University, South Korea (▼ not ranked in 2018 and 2019, 41st in 2015 and 2020, 50th in 2017)

46. Texas A&M University, United States (▼ 26th in 2020, 20th in 2019, 6th in 2015, 14th in 2016, 10th in 2017 and 2018)

47. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, United States (═ 47th in 2020, 41st in 2019, 45th in 2018)

48. Kansas State University, United States (▲ 48th in 2015, not ranked from 2016 to 2020)

49. University of Adelaide, Australia (═ 49th in 2020, 43rd in 2019)

50. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States (▲ unranked in 2020, 37th in 2019, 43rd in 2015, 33rd in 2016, 27th in 2017, 36th in 2018)

Universities that dropped out of the rankings in 2021:

Purdue University, United States (▼ 34th in 2020, 32nd in 2016, 2018, and 2019, 30th in 2015, 24th in 2017)

Tufts University, United States (▼ 50th in 2020, 40th in 2019, 34th in 2015, 41st in 2017, 44th in 2018)

University of Pretoria, South Africa (▼ 50th in 2020, 43rd in 2019)