The 2016 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) has been released by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy.
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, is ranked first for the 14th consecutive year. As last year, second place goes to Stanford University, USA. The University of California, Berkeley, USA, gained one rank compared to 2015 and joins the top three.
Cambridge University, UK, took 4th place and is the top European University. The highest ranked university in continental Europe is the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich (19th), the top Asian institution is the University of Tokyo (20th).
Top 20 Universities
| Rank | Institution | Country | Score |
|
1
|
Harvard University | USA |
100.0
|
|
2
|
Stanford University | USA |
74.7
|
|
3
|
University of California, Berkeley | USA |
70.1
|
|
4
|
University of Cambridge | UK |
69.6
|
|
5
|
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | USA |
69.2
|
|
6
|
Princeton University | USA |
62.0
|
|
7
|
University of Oxford | UK |
58.9
|
|
8
|
California Institute of Technology | USA |
57.8
|
|
9
|
Columbia University | USA |
56.7
|
|
10
|
University of Chicago | USA |
54.2
|
|
11
|
Yale University | USA |
52.8
|
|
12
|
University of California, Los Angeles | USA |
51.5
|
|
13
|
Cornell University | USA |
49.0
|
|
14
|
University of California, San Diego | USA |
47.8
|
|
15
|
University of Washington | USA |
47.3
|
|
16
|
Johns Hopkins University | USA |
46.0
|
|
17
|
University College London | UK |
45.3
|
|
18
|
University of Pennsylvania | USA |
44.5
|
|
19
|
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich | Switzerland |
43.8
|
|
20
|
The University of Tokyo | Japan |
42.2
|
Methodology
ARWU uses six indicators to rank universities:
- number of alumni winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals
- number of staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals
- number of highly cited researchers selected by Thomson Reuters
- number of articles published in Nature and Science
- number of articles indexed in Science Citation Index – Expanded (SCIE) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SCCI)
- per capita academic performance
Source
- 2016 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU),
ShanghaiRanking Consultancy
Also of Interest
- Asia University Rankings 2016,
ChemistryViews.org 2016.
Two highest ranked universities in Asia located in Singapore - CWTS Leiden Ranking 2016,
ChemistryViews.org 2016.
Assessing the scientific performance of 842 universities based on bibliometric indicators - Academic Ranking of World Universities 2015,
ChemistryViews.org 2015.
Harvard University ranked first overall, UC Berkeley top in the natural sciences
I do not have the time to look at the methodology. However, the real rankings of a university, as opposed to a research institute, should include student outcomes. Without that, the rankings are specious.