European universities outperform China and US in 2024 Shanghai rankings – Euractive DE

Eight universities in the European Union are in the top 50 Shanghai 2024 University Rankings Done. The EU is more represented in the top 500 universities than the US and China.

The Shanghai Ranking is known as the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and was first published in 2003. It is an annual publication that ranks the world's universities based on their academic and research achievements.

“Paris-Chacle is magical! Never before has a French university ranked so well in the prestigious Shanghai rankings: 12th in the world, wrote French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday (August 15), the day the rankings were published.

The University of Paris-Saclay has risen three places in a year, making it the top-ranked university in the European Union in 2024.

Meanwhile, eight of the top ten universities are American universities (one to three places are all American universities), and the remaining two (Cambridge and Oxford – in fourth and sixth place) are British universities.

There are only eight EU universities in the top 50

Next to Paris Saclay, the University of Paris Sciences et Lettres is ranked 33rd this year (eight places better than in 2023). Meanwhile, the Sorbonne University ranks 41st (up five places) – making it three French universities in the top 50.

A total of eight EU universities entered the top 50 of the rankings.

In addition to three French academic institutions, three German universities are also represented. However, they all perform worse than 43rd, 47th and 50th, with the other two European universities being the University of Copenhagen (32nd) and the Swedish Karolinska Institute (43rd).

In the overall rankings, the Union is ahead of the US and China.

With 135 universities in the top 500, the EU is ahead of the US (114) and China (91). The same goes for the top 1,000 universities, with 203 in China and 183 in the US.

However, not all EU countries are well represented in the rankings.

Germany, France, Italy and Spain – all of which are among the largest countries in the Union – each have more than 40 universities in the ranking. However, ten EU countries have only one such as Cyprus or Luxembourg, or none such as Romania or Malta.

A prestigious but criticized ranking

Although the reputation of the Shanghai Rankings is well established and respected by some, other rankings provide valuable insight, such as Times Higher Education, QS World University Rankings or CWTS Leiden Rankings. Each has its own method, which explains the different results.

The methodology For example, the Shanghai ranking CriticizedBecause it is exclusively based on quantitative criteria. Among others, the natural sciences are overemphasized at the expense of the social sciences and humanities. Philosophy and linguistics are not taken into account.

Since 2014 Supports The European Commission developed the U-Multirank ranking in collaboration with several European universities.

The idea is to “avoid simplistic rankings that lead to false comparisons.”

However, it has not achieved as much success as its American and Chinese rivals.

[Bearbeitet von Daniel Eck]