This report is usually released in August every year and rates universities on various indicators, like academic and research performance. About 2000 universities are actually ranked but only the top 1000 are published.
We list below the criteria used by the Shanghai report (ARWU) to classify universities.
The French University of Paris-Saclay (a research-intensive academic campus) ranked at number 14 (1st in the world for Mathematics, 9th in the world for Physics-1st in Europe and 25th for Medicine and Agriculture), the first non-US or non-UK university from the top of the list. Famed King's College London made the list at number 47.
The list is made up of largely-known universities, having achieved the top positions in the rankings previously. However, 3 Chinese newcomers entered the list in 2020 for excelling in their subjects: Southeast University (Transportation Science & Technology), Xi`an Jiaotong University (Mechanical Engineering), and Xidian University (Telecommunication Engineering).
Top universities in Natural Sciences (Mathematics, Physics, Geography, ...etc):
Top rankings in Engineering:
Top Life Sciences Rankings:
Medical Sciences’ Top Universities:
Top positions for Social Sciences:
The Shanghai Ranking Consultancy has already released the 2021 list of Academic Subjects which rank different academic institutions based on the subjects they teach. Some of the subjects they consider are the natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, medical sciences, etc.
The subject rankings also use similar criteria as the university rankings like: research quality, international collaboration, academic achievements and awards.
The accuracy and authenticity of this type of ranking is especially important because they garner a lot of media attention, and are viewed by many students and their families as a useful tool when choosing an academic institution. Results can also impact political decisions like making reforms in higher education. The listed institutions also use this status to advertise their exalted standing among other institutions, which can be very misleading. Potential employers may also look at this list and favour alumni from only certain institutions.
Despite the heavy criticism from other academics since the very first ranking in 2003, every year a new list is published with even more media attention, and some countries even view it as the gold standard to achieve global prominence.
Initially, the authors admitted to devising the ranking as a way to understand how to close the academic gap between Chinese universities and international ones. They were unable to procure data from international institutions so decided to look at only research and academic performance as markers of university achievement.
These are only some of the highlighted criticisms of the Shanghai Rankings. There are many more inaccuracies and inconsistencies which may explain why US and UK have multiple academic institutions that trust all the top positions whilst other countries do not feature high in the list (France) or not at all within the first 500 positions (India).
Critics of ARWU claim that the ranking criteria only looks at academic and research, which is a very narrow perspective and therefore only gives a very limited view of an academic institution.
It may be more informative to look at alternative rankings that illustrate more diverse indicators and your personal selection criteria better, like the QS World University Rankings and Times Higher Education World University Ranking (THE) university rankings. Less well-known rankings like the French ENSMP uses the criterion of "the number of alumni from a particular academic institution that have become CEO of a company listed in the Fortune Magazine" and provides a complete different ranking.
There is no perfect method of determining which is the best university. Students can look at factors such as: student satisfaction data, employment opportunities, scholarships, how competitive it is to get admission and how the programme ranks domestically rather than globally - this is often a better indication of the success of the institution.
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