Eight EU universities ranked in the top 50 of the Shanghai 2024 University Ranking, with Paris-Saclay scoring the highest among EU universities, according to Euractiv.
The Shanghai ranking, known as the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and first published in 2003, is an annual publication that ranks the world’s universities based on their academic and research performance.
French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X on Thursday when the ranking was released:
Paris-Saclay is magical! Never before has a French university been ranked so highly in the prestigious Shanghai Ranking: 12th in the world.
Paris-Saclay University has risen three positions in just one year to become the best EU university in 2024. Meanwhile, of the top 10 universities in the ranking, eight are American (the top three are all US universities), and the remaining two (Cambridge and Oxford – fourth and sixth places respectively) are British.
Only eight EU universities are ranked in the top 50. Besides Paris-Saclay, the Paris Sciences et Lettres University ranked 33rd this year (up eight places from 2023) and Sorbonne University ranked 41st (up five places). This gives France three of its universities in the top 50.
Overall ranking
In addition to the three French academic institutions, this includes three German institutions, all ranked below the French (43, 47, 50), as well as the University of Copenhagen (ranked 32) and Sweden’s Karolinska Institute (joint 43).
In terms of overall ranking, the EU bloc is also 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 applies to the top 1000, while China has 203 and the US has 183.
However, not all EU countries are well represented in the ranking. While Germany, France, Italy and Spain each have more than 40 universities in the ranking, 10 EU countries have only one, such as Cyprus or Luxembourg, or none, such as Romania or Malta.
While the reputation of the Shanghai ranking is well known and respected by some, other rankings provide valuable information, such as Times Higher Education, QS World University Rankings, or the CWTS Leiden ranking list. Each of them has its own methodology which explains their different results.
