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ShanghaiRanking Academic Ranking of World Universities 2018 results announced

Top universities in the world featured in the ShanghaiRanking ARWU league table for 2018

    Seeta Bhardwa's avatar

    Seeta Bhardwa

    Editor, THE Student
    August 14 2018
    ShanghaiRanking 2018 Harvard University

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    For the 16th year running, Harvard University has topped the Academic Ranking of World Universities compiled by consultancy ShanghaiRanking. 

    The top three in the annual ranking remains unchanged from last year with California Institute of Technology (9th), and the University of Chicago (10th).

    The top 10 is dominated by institutions in the US and UK. 

    Northwestern Polytechnical University and 10 other universities enter the top 500 for the first time. 

    The ShanghaiRanking Consultancy is an independent organisation dedicated to research on higher education intelligence and consultations. It has been the official publisher of the Academic Ranking of World Universities since 2009. 

    Top five universities in the 2018 ShanghaiRanking Academic Ranking of World Universities

    1. Harvard University 

    Harvard University is the oldest university in the US, having been formed in 1636, and is considered one of the most prestigious in the world.

    The museums affiliated with the institution hold more than 28 million works of art, artefacts, specimens and instruments. 

    Harvard’s alumni include eight US presidents, several foreign heads of state and 62 living billionaires. Some 130 Nobel laureates, 18 Fields Medallists, and 13 Turing Award winners have been affiliated with the university as students or staff.

    2. Stanford University 

    Stanford University is known for nurturing an entrepreneurial spirit among its students, a legacy of its founders, Jane and Leland Stanford. It is also renowned for its relationship with Silicon Valley. 

    The 8,000-acre campus is located in California’s Bay Area. There are more than 625 student associations at the university, including the student newspaper, The Stanford Daily.


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    3. University of Cambridge

    The University of Cambridge have won some 90 Nobel prizes, and are represented in every category.

    The list of high-achieving alumni from the institution is endless, but prominent among them are Stephen Hawking, David Attenborough, Virginia Woolf and Zadie Smith.

    4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    Researchers at this specialist science and technology institution invented one of the first large-scale high-speed computers in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1951. The Whirlwind I is still on display at the MIT Museum.

    Some 25,800 active companies have been started or co-founded by living MIT alumni, showing just how much impact MIT has had on innovation. 

    5. University of California, Berkeley

    Rounding off the top five is the University of California, Berkeley. The university is not without its unusual traditions, and students are expected to roll down 4.0 Hill on campus to get good grades. However, if you step on the Berkeley seal nearby, it has been said that you will be cursed for the year.  

    The tradition obviously works as Berkeley faculty, alumni, and researchers include 91 Nobel laureates. The institution’s alumni have also achieved 13 Fields Medals, 23 Turing Awards, 45 MacArthur Fellowships, 20 Academy Awards, 14 Pulitzer Prizes and 117 Olympic gold medals.  


    Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2018 results: top 500 universities

    ARWU 2018 rank Institution Country/Region
    1 Harvard University United States
    2 Stanford University United States
    3 University of Cambridge United Kingdom
    4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States
    5 University of California, Berkeley United States
    6 Princeton University United States
    7 University of Oxford United Kingdom
    8 Columbia University United States
    9 California Institute of Technology United States
    10 University of Chicago United States
    11 University of California, Los Angeles United States
    =12 Cornell University United States
    =12 Yale University United States
    14 University of Washington United States
    15 University of California, San Diego United States
    16 University of Pennsylvania United States
    17 UCL United Kingdom
    18 Johns Hopkins University United States
    19 ETH Zurich Switzerland
    20 Washington University in St Louis United States
    21 University of California, San Francisco United States
    22 The University of Tokyo Japan
    23 University of Toronto Canada
    24 Imperial College London United Kingdom
    25 Western University United States
    26 Duke University United States
    27 University of Michigan United States
    28 University of Wisconsin United States
    29 University of Copenhagen Denmark
    =30 The Rockefeller University United States
    =30 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States
    =32 York University United States
    =32 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom
    34 University of Manchester United Kingdom
    35 Kyoto University Japan
    36 Sorbonne University France
    37 University of Minnesota United States
    =38 University of Melbourne Australia
    =38 University of Colorado Boulder United States
    40 University of Texas at Austin United States
    41 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign United States
    42 Paris-Sud University France
    43 University of British Columbia Canada
    44 Karolinska Institute Sweden
    45 Tsinghua University China
    46 University of California, Santa Barbara United States
    47 Heidelberg University Germany
    =48 Technical University of Munich Germany
    =48 University of Texas at Dallas United States
    50 Vanderbilt University United States
    =51 University of Maryland, College Park United States
    =51 Utrecht University Netherlands
    53 LMU Munich Germany
    54 University of Zurich Switzerland
    55 University of Queensland Australia
    56 King's College London United Kingdom
    =57 Peking University China
    =57 University of Helsinki Finland
    59 University of Geneva Switzerland
    60 University of Southern California United States
    61 Ghent University Belgium
    62 University of Oslo Norway
    63 Uppsala University Sweden
    64 Ecole Normale Superieure France
    65 Aarhus University Denmark
    66 University of Groningen Netherlands
    67 Zhejiang University China
    68 University of Sydney Australia
    69 Australian National University Australia
    =70 Boston University United States
    =70 McGill University Canada
    =70 Purdue University United States
    =70 Rice University United States
    =74 Leiden University Netherlands
    =74 Pennsylvania State University United States
    =74 University of Bristol United Kingdom
    =77 Stockholm University Sweden
    =77 Technion Israel Institute of Technology Israel
    =79 Erasmus University Rotterdam Netherlands
    =79 Georgia Institute of Technology United States
    =81 Mayo Medical School United States
    =81 École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland
    =83 Nagoya University Japan
    =83 University of California, Irvine United States
    85 National University of Singapore Singapore
    =86 KU Leuven Belgium
    =86 McMaster University Canada
    =86 Lomonosov Moscow State University Russia
    =86 University of Florida United States
    90 University of Pittsburgh United States
    =91 Carnegie Mellon University United States
    =91 Monash University Australia
    93 University of Western Australia Australia
    94 Ohio State University United States
    95 Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel
    =96 Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Singapore
    =96 University of Basel Switzerland
    =96 University of California, Davis United States
    99 University of Göttingen Germany
    100 University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center United States
    101-150 Aix-Marseille University France
    101-150 Arizona State University United States
    101-150 Baylor College of Medicine United States
    101-150 Brown University United States
    101-150 Cardiff University United Kingdom
    101-150 Case Western Reserve University United States
    101-150 Emory University United States
    101-150 Fudan University China
    101-150 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai United States
    101-150 Indiana University United States
    101-150 King Abdulaziz University Saudi Arabia
    101-150 King Saud University Saudi Arabia
    101-150 Lund University Sweden
    101-150 Michigan State University United States
    101-150 Norwegian University of Science and Technology Norway
    101-150 Osaka University Japan
    101-150 Radboud University Nijmegen Netherlands
    101-150 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey United States
    101-150 Seoul National University South Korea
    101-150 Shanghai Jiao Tong University China
    101-150 Sun Yat-sen University China
    101-150 University of Adelaide Australia
    101-150 University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
    101-150 University of New South Wales Australia
    101-150 University of Sheffield United Kingdom
    101-150 Tohoku University Japan
    101-150 University of Alberta Canada
    101-150 University of Amsterdam Netherlands
    101-150 University of Arizona United States
    101-150 University of Bern Switzerland
    101-150 University of Birmingham United Kingdom
    101-150 University of Bonn Germany
    101-150 University of California, Santa Cruz United States
    101-150 Goethe University Frankfurt Germany
    101-150 University of Freiburg Germany
    101-150 University of Gothenburg Sweden
    101-150 University of Lausanne Switzerland
    101-150 University of Leeds United Kingdom
    101-150 University of Liverpool United Kingdom
    101-150 University of Montreal Canada
    101-150 University of Nottingham United Kingdom
    101-150 University of Science and Technology of China China
    101-150 University of Southampton United Kingdom
    101-150 University of Strasbourg France
    101-150 University of Utah United States
    101-150 Wageningen University & Research Netherlands
    101-150 University of Warwick United Kingdom
    101-150 Paris Diderot University – Paris 7 France
    101-150 Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Netherlands
    101-150 Weizmann Institute of Science Israel
    151-200 Université Catholique de Louvain Belgium
    151-200 Curtin University Australia
    151-200 Delft University of Technology Netherlands
    151-200 Harbin Institute of Technology China
    151-200 Hokkaido University Japan
    151-200 Huazhong University of Science and Technology China
    151-200 London School of Economics and Political Science United Kingdom
    151-200 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine United Kingdom
    151-200 Nanjing University China
    151-200 National Taiwan University Taiwan
    151-200 North Carolina State University United States
    151-200 Oregon Health and Science University United States
    151-200 Oregon State University United States
    151-200 Queen Mary University of London United Kingdom
    151-200 Sichuan University China
    151-200 Sungkyunkwan University South Korea
    151-200 Technical University of Denmark Denmark
    151-200 Tel Aviv University Israel
    151-200 Texas A&M University United States
    151-200 Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
    151-200 University of Calgary Canada
    151-200 University of Glasgow United Kingdom
    151-200 Tokyo Institute of Technology Japan
    151-200 Trinity College Dublin Ireland
    151-200 TU Dresden Germany
    151-200 Tufts University United States
    151-200 Grenoble Alpes University France
    151-200 Université Libre de Bruxelles Belgium
    151-200 University of Barcelona Spain
    151-200 University of California, Riverside United States
    151-200 University of Cologne Germany
    151-200 University of Exeter United Kingdom
    151-200 University of Hamburg Germany
    151-200 University of Iowa United States
    151-200 Leipzig University Germany
    151-200 University of Lisbon Portugal
    151-200 University of Massachusetts Amherst United States
    151-200 University of Massachusetts Medical School - Worcester United States
    151-200 University of Milan Italy
    151-200 University of Münster Germany
    151-200 University of Ottawa Canada
    151-200 Paris Descartes University France
    151-200 University of Rochester United States
    151-200 University of São Paulo Brazil
    151-200 University of Tübingen Germany
    151-200 University of Vienna Austria
    151-200 University of Virginia United States
    151-200 University of Waterloo Canada
    151-200 University of Würzburg Germany
    151-200 Xi’an Jiaotong University China
    201-300 Aalborg University Denmark
    201-300 Beihang University China
    201-300 Beijing Normal University China
    201-300 Brandeis University United States
    201-300 Central South University China
    201-300 Chalmers University of Technology Sweden
    201-300 Charles University in Prague Czech
    201-300 China Medical University, Taiwan Taiwan
    201-300 City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
    201-300 Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 France
    201-300 Colorado State University United States
    201-300 Complutense University of Madrid Spain
    201-300 Dalian University of Technology China
    201-300 Dartmouth College United States
    201-300 Deakin University Australia
    201-300 Durham University United Kingdom
    201-300 Florida State University United States
    201-300 George Mason University United States
    201-300 Georgetown University United States
    201-300 Hanyang University South Korea
    201-300 Iowa State University United States
    201-300 James Cook University Australia
    201-300 Jilin University China
    201-300 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Germany
    201-300 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Saudi Arabia
    201-300 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) South Korea
    201-300 Korea University South Korea
    201-300 KTH Royal Institute of Technology Sweden
    201-300 Kyushu University Japan
    201-300 Laval University Canada
    201-300 Maastricht University Netherlands
    201-300 Macquarie University Australia
    201-300 Medical University of Vienna Austria
    201-300 National Autonomous University of Mexico Mexico
    201-300 Newcastle University United Kingdom
    201-300 Northeastern University United States
    201-300 Paul Sabatier University (Toulouse 3) France
    201-300 Polytechnic University of Milan Italy
    201-300 Pompeu Fabra University Spain
    201-300 Queen's University Canada
    201-300 Queensland University of Technology Australia
    201-300 RWTH Aachen University Germany
    201-300 Sapienza University of Rome Italy
    201-300 Soochow University China
    201-300 South China University of Technology China
    201-300 Southeast University China
    201-300 Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Sweden
    201-300 George Washington University United States
    201-300 Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong
    201-300 Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong
    201-300 University of Auckland New Zealand
    201-300 University of Georgia United States
    201-300 University of Reading United Kingdom
    201-300 Tianjin University China
    201-300 University of Aberdeen United Kingdom
    201-300 University of Alabama at Birmingham United States
    201-300 University of Antwerp Belgium
    201-300 University of Bergen Norway
    201-300 University of Bologna Italy
    201-300 University of Bordeaux France
    201-300 University of Buenos Aires Argentina
    201-300 University of Colorado Denver United States
    201-300 University of Delaware United States
    201-300 University of East Anglia United Kingdom
    201-300 University of Electronic Science and Technology of China China
    201-300 University of Erlangen-Nuremberg Germany
    201-300 University of Granada Spain
    201-300 University of Hawai’i at Mānoa United States
    201-300 University of Houston United States
    201-300 University of Illinois at Chicago United States
    201-300 University of Innsbruck Austria
    201-300 University of Kansas United States
    201-300 University of Kiel Germany
    201-300 University of Leicester United Kingdom
    201-300 University of Lorraine France
    201-300 Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz Germany
    201-300 University of Maryland, Baltimore United States
    201-300 University of Miami United States
    201-300 University of Missouri  United States
    201-300 Montpellier University France
    201-300 University of Naples Federico II Italy
    201-300 University of Nebraska-Lincoln United States
    201-300 University of Notre Dame United States
    201-300 University of Padua Italy
    201-300 University of Pisa Italy
    201-300 University of South Florida United States
    201-300 University of Sussex United Kingdom
    201-300 University of Tasmania Australia
    201-300 University of Tennessee, Knoxville United States
    201-300 University of the Witwatersrand South Africa
    201-300 University of Toulouse 1 France
    201-300 University of Tsukuba Japan
    201-300 University of Turin Italy
    201-300 University of Ulm Germany
    201-300 University of Wollongong Australia
    201-300 Virginia Commonwealth University United States
    201-300 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University United States
    201-300 Vrije Universiteit Brussel  Belgium
    201-300 Western University Canada
    201-300 Wuhan University China
    301-400 Aalto University Finland
    301-400 University of Barcelona Spain
    301-400 Autonomous University of Madrid Spain
    301-400 Boston College United States
    301-400 Chiba University Japan
    301-400 China Agricultural University China
    301-400 Dalhousie University Canada
    301-400 Drexel University United States
    301-400 East China University of Science and Technology China
    301-400 École Normale Supérieure de Lyon France
    301-400 Eindhoven University of Technology Netherlands
    301-400 ESPCI ParisTech France
    301-400 Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Brazil
    301-400 Griffith University Australia
    301-400 Hannover Medical School Germany
    301-400 Hunan University China
    301-400 Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis United States
    301-400 Keio University Japan
    301-400 King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals Saudi Arabia
    301-400 Kyung Hee University South Korea
    301-400 La Trobe University Australia
    301-400 Lancaster University United Kingdom
    301-400 Lanzhou University China
    301-400 Linköping University Sweden
    301-400 Louisiana State University United States
    301-400 Medical University of South Carolina United States
    301-400 Nanjing Agricultural University China
    301-400 Nanjing University of Science and Technology China
    301-400 Nankai University China
    301-400 National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Greece
    301-400 National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) Taiwan
    301-400 Northwestern Polytechnical University China
    301-400 Okayama University Japan
    301-400 Paris Dauphine University France
    301-400 Queen's University Belfast United Kingdom
    301-400 RMIT University Australia
    301-400 Saint Petersburg State University Russia
    301-400 Shandong University China
    301-400 Simon Fraser University Canada
    301-400 Stony Brook University United States
    301-400 Swinburne University of Technology Australia
    301-400 Technical University of Berlin Germany
    301-400 Temple University United States
    301-400 University of Dundee United Kingdom
    301-400 University of New Mexico United States
    301-400 University of Newcastle Australia
    301-400 University of Texas at Dallas United States
    301-400 The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston United States
    301-400 The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio United States
    301-400 Tongji University China
    301-400 Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology South Korea
    301-400 São Paulo State University (UNESP) Brazil
    301-400 University at Buffalo United States
    301-400 University College Dublin Ireland
    301-400 University of Belgrade Serbia
    301-400 Ruhr University Bochum Germany
    301-400 State University of Campinas Brazil
    301-400 University of Cape Town South Africa
    301-400 University of Central Florida United States
    301-400 University of Chile Chile
    301-400 University of Cincinnati United States
    301-400 University of Connecticut United States
    301-400 University of Düsseldorf Germany
    301-400 University of Duisburg-Essen Germany
    301-400 University of Florence Italy
    301-400 University of Fribourg Switzerland
    301-400 University of Guelph Canada
    301-400 University of Jena Germany
    301-400 University of Kentucky United States
    301-400 University of Liège Belgium
    301-400 University of Malaya Malaysia
    301-400 University of Manitoba Canada
    301-400 University of Marburg Germany
    301-400 University of North Texas United States
    301-400 University of Oregon United States
    301-400 University of Otago New Zealand
    301-400 University of Pavia Italy
    301-400 University of Porto Portugal
    301-400 University of Saskatchewan Canada
    301-400 University of South Carolina United States
    301-400 University of Southern Denmark Denmark
    301-400 University of St Andrews United Kingdom
    301-400 University of Stuttgart Germany
    301-400 University of Surrey United Kingdom
    301-400 University of Tartu Estonia
    301-400 University of Technology, Sydney Australia
    301-400 University of Tehran Iran
    301-400 University of the Basque Country Spain
    301-400 University of Turku Finland
    301-400 University of Vermont United States
    301-400 University of Victoria Canada
    301-400 University of Warsaw Poland
    301-400 University of York United Kingdom
    301-400 Victoria University of Wellington New Zealand
    301-400 Vienna University of Technology Austria
    301-400 Washington State University United States
    301-400 Wuhan University of Technology China
    301-400 Xiamen University China
    301-400 Yeshiva University United States
    301-400 Yonsei University South Korea
    401-500 Amirkabir University of Technology Iran
    401-500 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Greece
    401-500 Bar-Ilan University Israel
    401-500 Beijing Institute of Technology China
    401-500 Beijing University of Chemical Technology China
    401-500 Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Israel
    401-500 Bielefeld University Germany
    401-500 Brigham Young University United States
    401-500 Brunel University London United Kingdom
    401-500 Cairo University Egypt
    401-500 Capital Medical University China
    401-500 Pontifical Catholic University of Chile Chile
    401-500 Chang Gung University Taiwan
    401-500 China University of Geosciences, Wuhan China
    401-500 Chongqing University China
    401-500 City University of New York  United States
    401-500 East China Normal University China
    401-500 École Polytechnique France
    401-500 Federal University of Minas Gerais Brazil
    401-500 Federal University  of Rio Grande do Sul Brazil
    401-500 Flinders University Australia
    401-500 Florida International University United States
    401-500 Harbin Engineering University China
    401-500 Heriot-Watt University United Kingdom
    401-500 Huazhong Agricultural University China
    401-500 Indian Institute of Science India
    401-500 Istanbul University Turkey
    401-500 Jagiellonian University Poland
    401-500 Kansas State University United States
    401-500 Kaohsiung Medical University Taiwan
    401-500 Kent State University United States
    401-500 Kobe University Japan
    401-500 Medical University of Innsbruck Austria
    401-500 Mines ParisTech France
    401-500 Mississippi State University United States
    401-500 Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology Russia
    401-500 Nanjing Medical University China
    401-500 Nanjing Tech University China
    401-500 Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics China
    401-500 Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology China
    401-500 National Technical University of Athens Greece
    401-500 National Tsing Hua University Taiwan
    401-500 National University of Ireland, Galway Ireland
    401-500 Northeastern  University China
    401-500 Novosibirsk State University Russia
    401-500 Oklahoma State University United States
    401-500 Peking Union Medical College China
    401-500 Pohang University of Science and Technology South Korea
    401-500 Polytechnic University of Valencia Spain
    401-500 Rush University United States
    401-500 Saint Louis University United States
    401-500 Shanghai University China
    401-500 St George's, University of London United Kingdom
    401-500 Stellenbosch University South Africa
    401-500 Stockholm School of Economics Sweden
    401-500 Technical University of Darmstadt Germany
    401-500 Texas Tech University United States
    401-500 The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston United States
    401-500 Tokushima University Japan
    401-500 Thomas Jefferson University United States
    401-500 Tokyo University of Science Japan
    401-500 Umeå University Sweden
    401-500 State University of New York United States
    401-500 University College Cork Ireland
    401-500 University of Aveiro Portugal
    401-500 University of Bath United Kingdom
    401-500 University of Bayreuth Germany
    401-500 University of Bremen Germany
    401-500 University of Canterbury New Zealand
    401-500 University of Eastern Finland Finland
    401-500 University of Ferrara Italy
    401-500 University of Graz Austria
    401-500 University of Halle-Wittenberg Germany
    401-500 University of Hannover Germany
    401-500 University of Kent United Kingdom
    401-500 University of Konstanz Germany
    401-500 University of Ljubljana Slovenia
    401-500 University of Maine United States
    401-500 University of Milan Italy
    401-500 University of Minho Portugal
    401-500 University of Montana United States
    401-500 University of New Hampshire United States
    401-500 University of Oklahoma United States
    401-500 University of Palermo Italy
    401-500 University of Parma Italy
    401-500 University of Pretoria South Africa
    401-500 University of Rostock Germany
    401-500 University of Santiago de Compostela Spain
    401-500 University of Science and Technology Beijing China
    401-500 University of Science, Malaysia Malaysia
    401-500 University of Ulsan South Korea
    401-500 University of Valencia Spain
    401-500 University of Western Sydney Australia
    401-500 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee United States
    401-500 University of Wyoming United States
    401-500 Utah State University United States
    401-500 Vita-Salute San Raffaele University Italy
    401-500 Waseda University Japan
    401-500 Wayne State University United States
    401-500 West Virginia University United States

    Read more: Best universities in the world 2018


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