European do not normally rate. I have never seen a book listing all schools or universities with ratings in Europe,
There are I think quite numbers of University rankings in EU. I, too don't know about those BOOKS, but if you search on Google, you get plenty of websites with university rankings around the world. Universities use rankings as an ad. method. When they say, their university is ranked among top 100, they'll get twice or three times more of students coming to visit.

Another reason is that most people are not going to send their children to school in faraway cities but rather in those close to where they live.
The government had been quite strict on this. But recently they've been changing their mind. Nowdays it's a trend to send kids to schools which even it takes 1 or 2 hours by train or bus. Education should be accesible from anywhere, that's my 2 cents.