Steeped in a rich philosophical tradition, Europe has been home to some of the world’s greatest philosophers and philosophical movements - from Aristotle’s metaphysics to Hegel’s Absolute Idealism, from Kirkegaard’s existentialism to Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis, or from Camus absurdity to Hannah Arendt’s theory of totalitarianism. Today European HEIs keep this philosophical tradition alive at some of the world’s top-rated universities. According to the QS World University Rankings 2016, Europe has 21 Universities in the top 50, more than any other single region. The UK’s University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) all rank in the World’s Top 10, followed closely by Humboldt-Universitat Zu Berlin (14) and Ludwig- Maximilians-Universitat Munchen (15), both in Germany, and the Universite Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne (23). Ranked in the QS top 100 for this subject, EHEVF 2016 India and South Asia participant Leiden University is not only known for its high academic standards but also for offering a combination of Continental and Analytical Philosophy. Its Institute of Philosophy offers several 1 year English-taught MA programmes - including Ethics and Politics, History and Philosophy of the Sciences, Philosophical Anthropology and Philosophy of Culture, and Philosophy, Economics and Politics. Many European universities offer Philosophy or Philosophy related modules as part of wider undergraduate or post-graduate programmes in Politics, Political Science or International Relations.
