Swiss institutions claimed the top five places in QS’s 2026 Hospitality & Leisure Management ranking. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University ranked first in ShanghaiRanking’s Hospitality & Tourism Management list. Türkiye’s Akdeniz and Boğaziçi universities placed in the 101–150 band in QS, while Eastern Mediterranean University in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) appeared in both rankings.

The 2026 international rankings of higher education institutions offering tourism and hospitality education highlighted two different approaches to assessment. Switzerland’s EHL Hospitality Business School topped the “Hospitality & Leisure Management” category of the QS World University Rankings by Subject, while The Hong Kong Polytechnic University took first place in ShanghaiRanking’s “Hospitality & Tourism Management” ranking. EHL stands for the French name “École hôtelière de Lausanne,” meaning Lausanne Hotel School.

Published on 25 March 2026 and covering more than 170 institutions, the QS ranking placed Les Roches Global Hospitality Management Education, Glion Institute of Higher Education, Swiss Hotel Management School and César Ritz Colleges Switzerland immediately behind EHL. Swiss institutions thus occupied all five of the leading positions.

In the QS ranking, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in the United States placed sixth, followed by Hotelschool The Hague in the Netherlands in seventh. Switzerland’s HIM Business School ranked eighth, and Culinary Arts Academy Switzerland ninth. Macao University of Tourism completed the top 10. In total, seven Swiss institutions featured among the top 10.

Türkiye’s Akdeniz University and Boğaziçi University placed in the 101–150 band in QS’s 2026 Hospitality & Leisure Management ranking. The results in this field, in which Akdeniz University’s Faculty of Tourism and Boğaziçi University’s Department of Tourism Administration operate, were announced in official statements issued by the two universities on 27 March 2026. Placement within a ranking band means that institutions are not assigned individual positions within that range.

In ShanghaiRanking’s 2026 Hospitality & Tourism Management list, which included 100 institutions, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University was followed by the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom and Kyung Hee University in South Korea. Sun Yat-sen University in China ranked fourth, and the University of Central Florida in the United States placed fifth.

Washington State University ranked sixth on the same list, followed by Purdue University’s West Lafayette campus in seventh. Australia’s The University of Queensland placed eighth and Griffith University ninth, while Pennsylvania State University’s University Park campus ranked tenth. The United States therefore accounted for four institutions in ShanghaiRanking’s top 10, and Australia for two.

Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU), located in the TRNC, placed in the 51–75 band in ShanghaiRanking’s 2026 Hospitality & Tourism Management ranking. According to the university’s statement dated 28 September 2026, EMU was the only institution across Türkiye and the island of Cyprus to appear in the ranking for this field. Because EMU is located in the TRNC, its result is considered separately from those of universities based in Türkiye. The university also placed in the 151–175 band in QS’s 2026 Hospitality & Leisure Management ranking.

The methodologies used by the two rankings are crucial to interpreting their results. In this subject area, QS assigns 45 per cent of the overall score to academic reputation, 50 per cent to employer reputation and five per cent to citations per paper. The views of academics and employers therefore account for 95 per cent of the total weighting.

ShanghaiRanking, meanwhile, uses indicators such as the international visibility of academic staff, high-level scientific publications, research quality, citation impact and international collaboration. The publication and citation data used in its 2026 assessment cover the period from 2021 to 2025. These methodological differences show that the rankings assess educational institutions from different perspectives.

For culinary arts and gastronomy education, Culinary Arts Academy Switzerland’s ninth-place position in the QS ranking is particularly notable. However, this position belongs to the Hospitality & Leisure Management category, rather than a separate culinary arts ranking. The results reflect universities’ overall performance in the relevant subject area; they do not mean that each degree programme within their faculties and departments has received an individual ranking.