The 10th edition of its annual global university ranking, the 2012 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), was released by the Center for World-Class Universities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University,

Top 100

Harvard University, USA, remains the number one in the world for the tenth year.
ETH Zurich (23rd), Switzerland, takes first place in Continent Europe. It is followed by Paris-Sud (37th) and Pierre and Marie Curie (42nd), both France.
With Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (78th) and Weizmann Institute of Science (93rd) entering the Top 100 for the very first time, three Israeli universities are listed.

The University of Western Australia’s first appearance in Top 100 (96th) increases the number of Top 100 universities in Australia to 5, which is the 3rd highest number across all countries.

Top 500

Five universities in China and four in other countries move into the Top 500 for the first time. As a result, China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan) now has 42 universities in the Top 500. It overtakes the UK which has 38 universities in the Top 500. None of the Chinese universities are ranked among the Top 100 yet.

With the University of Belgrade now in the Top 500, Serbia becomes the 43rd country on the ARWU list.

Best universities in each ranked FIELD and SUBJECT

Natural Sciences and Mathematics – Harvard, Berkeley, Princeton, Caltech and MIT
Engineering/Technology and Computer Sciences – MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, UIUC and UT Austin
Life and Agriculture Sciences – Harvard, MIT, UC San Francisco, Cambridge and Washington (Seattle)
Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy – Harvard, UC San Francisco, Washington (Seattle), Johns Hopkins and Columbia
Social Sciences – Harvard, Chicago, Berkeley, MIT and Columbia

Mathematics – Princeton, Harvard, Berkeley, Cambridge and Stanford
Physics – Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, Princeton and Caltech
Chemistry – Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford, Cambridge and ETH Zurich (see also above)
Computer Science – Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Princeton and Harvard
Economics / Business – Harvard, Chicago, MIT, Berkeley and Columbia

---

• Shanghai Ranking
  Academic Ranking of World Universities
  complete lists and detailed methodologies

Also of interest

• Ranking of Worldwide Research Institutions
  The Scimago Institutions Ranking, the SIR World Reports 2012, is the most comprehensive ranking of Worldwide Research Institutions