European and American universities dominate the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2024, in which Harvard once again takes first place.
British, German, French and Swiss universities They are among the best in the world, according to the 2024 edition of the Academic Classification of World Universities (ARWU).
For the 22nd consecutive year, the Harvard Universitylocated in Cambridge (USA), took first place. Two other American institutions close the podium, the Stanford University and the Massachusetts Technological Institute (WITH).
The Cambridge Universityin it United Kingdomobtained fourth place, becoming the best ranked university in Europe. The Oxford Universityalso based in the United Kingdom, ranked sixth. They are the only European institutions in the top 10. American universities practically monopolize the top positions on the list, since 8 of the 10 best in the world are located in that country.
How are universities classified?
The ARWU list, published by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, prepares the university ‘ranking’ using academic performance and research indicators. These include achievements such as winning prestigious awards, such as Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, by former students. This serves to evaluate the quality of education and the quality of the institutions’ teaching staff.
Other criteria are the number of Highly Cited Researchers (HiCi), publications in top-level journals such as ‘Nature’ and ‘Science’, articles indexed in the main citation databases (PUB) and the per capita academic production of the institution (PCP).
The best universities in Europe
In addition to the British Oxford and Cambridge, other European universities ranked in the top 50. The University of Paris-Saclay, in France, rose three places compared to last year to be placed in 12th place. It was followed by ETH Zurich (Switzerland), in 21st place, Imperial College London (25th), and the University of Copenhagen (32).
In terms of representation, USA and China were the countries with the highest number of institutions among the top 100, with 38 and 14 universities respectively. In Europe, the United Kingdom was the country with the most universities in the top 100, with 8, followed by Switzerland, Germany and France.
For the first time, Germany had three universities in the top 50: the University of Munich (43), the Technical University of Munich (47) and the University of Heidelberg (50).
Las french universities also showed significant progress, with the University of Paris-Saclay (12), the PSL University (33) and the Sorbonne University (41) in the top 50. The universities of Italy, Spain, Austria and Portugal were not among the top 100but they did have some representation in the top 500.
