Take a look at the 20 most prestigious universities in Europe for the new academic year

The 2015 ranking of global universities has just been published by education specialists QS, ahead of the start of the academic year. You can take a look at the whole tables here.

There's fierce competition for the top spots in every country.

The rankings are based on academic reputation, reputation with employers, student to staff ratio and the number of citations per academic paper the institution produces. They've produced their methodology here.

Many of the best higher education institutions in the world are found in Europe, and we've got this year's top 20 listed below.