Ranking of Universities in the non-English Speaking World, 2020-21

This is a ranking of the top 25 universities in the non-English speaking world ranked relative to each other by average world rank for the year 2020. In this ranking the “non-English speaking world” is defined as all countries excluding the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

The ranking was created by using metadata sourced from the four prominent rankings of world universities (each ranking released in 2020): Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), Times Higher Education (THE), and U.S. News & World Report (USNWR).

Rank was checked on each list for every university in the non-English speaking world ranked on all the lists. Then for each university all its rank placements were averaged across lists to create the new list of average ranking for each university. The universities were then ranked according to their average ranking. The university with the highest average is thus ranked 1st, the one with the second highest average 2nd, and so on.

Finally, the results were tabled, and are shown below (Figure 1). The leftmost column shows the final relative placement (relative placement based on average rank, i.e.), the “institution” column shows the institution ranked along with the flag of the country in which it is located, the next four rightward columns (ARWU, QS, THE, USNWR) show the rank for each given institution in each of those selected world rankings, and the rightmost column (“Average World Rank”) averages the four ranking lists’ rank placement for each university.

Some observations —

• No list predicts the top 10.
• Every list predicts ETH Zurich as 1st.
• Germany is the most represented country in the top 10, with 3 universities.
• China is the most represented country overall, with 5 universities.
• No university outside Europe, China, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong or South Korea makes the list.

Finally, I want to note that Karolinska Institute (Sweden) averages 43 — good for 6th — between ARWU, THE, and USNWR. However, it is unranked by QS, and is thus left off the ranking. Additionally, Paris Sciences et Lettres University (France) averages ~44 — good for 6th (or 7th if Karolinska Institute is included) — between ARWU, QS, and THE. However, it is unranked by USNWR (though some of its subdivisions are, strangely, individually ranked), and is thus also left off the ranking.

If anything appears to be in error, please email me at tuulifunctional@snmcgannon.com.

Ranking of Universities in the non-English Speaking World, 2020-21

Rank	Institution	ARWU	QS	THE	USNWR	Average World Rank
1	ETH Zurich (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich)🇨🇭	20	6	14	26	16.5
2	Tsinghua University (清华大学) 🇨🇳	29	15	20	28	23
3	Peking University (北京大学) 🇨🇳	49	23	23	51	36.5
4	National University of Singapore 🇸🇬	80	11	25	32	37
5	University of Tokyo (東京大学) 🇯🇵	26	24	36	73	39.75
6	Nanyang Technological University 🇸🇬	91	13	47	38	47.25
7	LMU Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) 🇩🇪	51	63	32	46	48
8	Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne)🇨🇭	83	14	43	58	49.5
9	Heidelberg University (Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg) 🇩🇪	57	64	42	54	54.25
10	Technical University of Munich (Technische Universität München) 🇩🇪	54	50	41	76	55.25
11	University of Copenhagen (Københavns Universitet) 🇩🇰	33	76	84	34	56.75
12	Kyoto University (京都大学) 🇯🇵	34	38	54	125	62.75
13	Sorbonne University (Sorbonne Université) 🇫🇷	39	83	87	43	63
14	University of Zurich (Universität Zürich)🇨🇭	56	69	73	62	65
15	University of Amsterdam (Universiteit van Amsterdam) 🇳🇱	101	61	66	40	67
16	Catholic University of Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven) 🇧🇪	97	84	45	48	68.5
17	University of Hong Kong (香港大學) 🇭🇰	151	22	39	83	73.75
17	Chinese University of Hong Kong (香港中文大學) 🇭🇰	101	43	56	95	73.75
19	Utrecht University (Universiteit Utrecht) 🇳🇱	52	121	75	54	75.5
20	Seoul National University (서울대학교) 🇰🇷	101	37	60	129	81.75
21	Shanghai Jiao Tong University (上海交通大学) 🇨🇳	63	47	100	122	83
22	Zhejiang University (浙江大学) 🇨🇳	58	53	94	135	85
23	University of Helsinki (Helsingin yliopisto) 🇫🇮	74	104	98	86	90.5
24	Leiden University (Universiteit Leiden) 🇳🇱	80	128	70	86	91
24	Fudan University (复旦大学) 🇨🇳	100	34	70	160	91

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