With Harvard in first place for the 20th consecutive year, American universities still prance at the top of the Shanghai ranking published on Monday, in which four French establishments remain in the top 100.
Anglo-Saxon establishments impose themselves as last year in the first ten places: eight American universities and two British occupy the top of the 2022 edition of this world ranking of the best establishments of higher education, carried out since 2003 by the cabinet independent Shanghai Ranking Consultancy.
Enthroned in first place, Harvard is once again ahead of its compatriot Stanford. This year, another American university, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), took third place on the podium, relegating Britain’s Cambridge to fourth. Then there are the American universities Berkeley (5th) and Princeton (6th) then the British Oxford (7th). A total of 39 US universities are in the top 100.
Paris-Saclay down slightly
The first non-Anglo-Saxon establishment with its 16th place, the University of Paris-Saclay lost three places compared to the 2021 ranking.
Three other French universities are among the 100 best in the world, having also dropped a few places compared to last year: PSL University (Paris Science and Letters), which brings together several higher education establishments including the Ecole Normale Supérieure ( ENS), in 40th place, the Sorbonne (43rd) and the University of Paris Cité (78th).
“3rd place in the world” for France
“As in 2021, four (French) establishments are ranked in the Top 100, including three in the Top 50”, notes the Ministry of Higher Education and Research in a press release Monday morning.
“The ranking of the University of Paris-Saclay as the 16th world university” allows France to “maintain for the 3rd consecutive year its 3rd place in the world, based on the number of establishments in the Top 20”, adds- he. A ranking that “illustrates the French scientific influence internationally”.
Six criteria taken into account
Minister Sylvie Retailleau “welcomes the move to the upper tier of the universities of Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier (201-300), Lille (301-400), Paris-Est Créteil (801-900) and INSA Toulouse (701- 800) as well as taking into account the new perimeters of experimental public establishments (EPE), including those created in 2022 (University of Montpellier, University of Lille and Nantes University)”, in the press release.
The Minister also underlines that the eight universities appearing in the Top 200 “are all labeled IdEx (Excellence Initiatives) or ISITE (Science-Innovation-Territories-Economy Initiatives)”.
The Shanghai ranking takes into account six criteria, including the number of Nobel and Fields medals – considered the Nobel of mathematics – among graduate students and professors, the number of most cited researchers in their discipline or the number of publications in Science and Nature journals. This year, more than 2,500 establishments were examined to establish a ranking of the first 1,000.