Our “top” and “best” lists are designed to help students shortlist universities. They are editorial guides, not a substitute for official global rankings or accreditation.
Our composite ranking score
Every institution gets a 0 to 100 composite score built only from figures someone else published. The default ordering on our “top” pages uses it. The inputs and weights:
- Global reputation, 50%. The institution’s QS World University Rankings position, where one is published (we read it from Wikidata). A better position scores higher, on a curve that rewards the top of the list steeply. If no institution in the dataset has a position, this input is dropped for everyone and the other weights are rescaled. If some institutions have one and others do not, an institution without a position receives a modest fixed baseline for this input, a quarter of the maximum, rather than zero, so that being unranked is not treated as the worst result.
- Programme breadth, 30%. The number of English-taught degree programmes the institution lists in the Study in Norway programme list, compared with the institution that lists the most.
- Subject variety, 20%. The number of different subject areas those programmes cover, compared with the institution that covers the most.
If an input cannot be calculated for one institution, for example because none of its programmes has a subject area, that input is left out of its score and the others are rescaled to 100. We do not use tuition fees, student numbers, an international-student share or a student-satisfaction score as inputs. The 1 to 6 star band is read off the 0 to 100 score afterwards and is never an input; the bands are set out on the star rating page. The score is a reputation-and-breadth measure: it tells you which institutions are well known and varied in English, not which teaches better, and it favours institutions with many English-taught programmes.
Quality assurance in Norwegian higher education sits with the authorities, not with this site: UDI, for example, requires a study-permit student’s place of study to be on the list of approved institutions kept by the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (NOKUT). Programme-level quality, fees and admission requirements are set by the institutions, so confirm them with the institution.
What we do not do
- We do not invent inputs: every figure behind the score is published by someone else.
- We do not sell placement. No university can pay to rank higher.
- We do not present editorial ordering as an official global ranking.
A note on accuracy
Ranking positions and ratings shown across the site are indicative and provided for general guidance. They can change year to year, so verify current positions with the official ranking bodies and the university.