Ranking of Public Universities Worldwide, 2020-21

Rank	Institution	ARWU	QS	THE	USNWR	Average World Rank
1	University of California, Berkeley 🇺🇸	5	30	7	4	11.5
2	ETH Zürich 🇨🇭	20	6	14	26	16.5
3	University of California, Los Angeles 🇺🇸	13	36	15	13	19.25
4	University of Michigan 🇺🇸	22	21	22	17	20.5
5	University of Toronto 🇨🇦	23	25	18	17	20.75
6	Tsinghua University 🇨🇳	29	15	20	28	23
7	University of Washington 🇺🇸	16	72	29	8	31.25
8	University of California, San Diego 🇺🇸	18	54	33	21	31.5
9	University of Melbourne 🇦🇺	35	41	31	25	33
10	Peking University 🇨🇳	49	23	23	51	36.5
11	University of British Columbia 🇨🇦	38	45	34	31	37
12	University of Tokyo 🇯🇵	26	24	36	73	39.75
13	University of Wisconsin – Madison 🇺🇸	32	65	49	41	46.75
14=	LMU Munich 🇩🇪	51	63	32	46	48
14=	University of Sydney 🇦🇺	74	40	51	27	48
16	University of Texas at Austin 🇺🇸	41	71	44	38	48.5
17=	Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) 🇨🇭	83	14	43	58	49.5
17=	University of Queensland 🇦🇺	54	46	62	36	49.5
19	McGill University 🇨🇦	78	31	40	51	50
20=	Heidelberg University 🇩🇪	57	64	42	54	54.25
20=	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 🇺🇸	30	95	56	36	54.25
22=	Australian National University 🇦🇺	67	31	59	64	55.25
22=	Technical University of Munich 🇩🇪	54	50	41	76	55.25
24	University of Copenhagen 🇩🇰	33	76	84	34	56.75
25	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 🇺🇸	45	82	48	60	58.75
26	University of New South Wales 🇦🇺	74	44	67	51	59
27	Kyoto University 🇯🇵	34	38	54	125	62.75
28=	Monash University 🇦🇺	85	55	64	48	63
28=	Sorbonne University 🇫🇷	39	83	87	43	63
30	University of Zürich 🇨🇭	56	69	73	62	65
31	University of Amsterdam 🇳🇱	101	61	66	40	67
32	Georgia Institute of Technology 🇺🇸	101	80	38	66	71.25
33=	Chinese University of Hong Kong 🇭🇰	101	43	56	95	73.75
33=	University of Hong Kong 🇭🇰	151	22	39	83	73.75
35	Utrecht University 🇳🇱	52	121	75	54	75.5
36	University of California, Santa Barbara 🇺🇸	49	152	68	56	81.25
37	Seoul National University 🇰🇷	101	37	60	129	81.75
38	Shanghai Jiao Tong University 🇨🇳	63	47	100	122	83
39	University of California, Davis 🇺🇸	91	112	64	66	83.25
40	Ohio State University 🇺🇸	101	108	80	45	83.5
41	Purdue University 🇺🇸	79	109	94	53	83.75
42	Zhejiang University 🇨🇳	58	53	94	135	85
43	University of Minnesota 🇺🇸	40	177	85	47	87.25
44	University of Maryland, College Park 🇺🇸	53	152	90	60	88.75
45	University of Helsinki 🇫🇮	74	104	98	86	90.5
46=	Fudan University 🇨🇳	100	34	70	160	91
46=	Leiden University 🇳🇱	80	128	70	86	91
48	University of Groningen 🇳🇱	69	128	80	92	92.25
49	University of Science and Technology of China 🇨🇳	73	93	87	124	94.25
50	Ghent University 🇧🇪	66	135	103	85	97.25

This is a ranking of the top 50 public universities in the world ranked relative to each other by average world rank for the year 2020-2021. A “public university” is a university which is (1) publicly funded and (2) publicly owned. Thus, for example, no U.K. universities are eligible for this list.

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 public university in the world ranked on each of 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, as shown above. 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 —

• All of the top 50 public universities in the world rank on average within the top 100 universities — public or private — in the world.
• There are 14 countries represented on the list.
• The 1st most represented region is North America, with 19 universities.
• The 2nd most represented region is Europe, with 14 universities.
• The 3rd most represented region is Asia, with 11 universities.
• The 4th most represented region is Oceania, with 6 universities.
• The 1st most represented country overall is the U.S., with 16 universities.
• The 2nd most represented countries overall are Australia and China, each with 6 universities.
• The 3rd most represented country overall is the Netherlands, with 4 universities.
• The next most represented countries are in order as follows: Canada and Switzerland (each with 3), Hong Kong and Japan (each with 2), and Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, and South Korea (each with 1).
• The most represented countries within the top 10 are the U.S. (with 5) and China (with 2).
• The list which best predicts the summed average is USNWR.
• The list which worst predicts the summed average is QS.

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

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This article’s header photograph depicting UC Berkeley is under the Creative Commons license.