
Rank | Institution | ARWU | QS | THE | USNWR | Average World Rank |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | University of California, Berkeley ๐บ๐ธ | 5 | 30 | 7 | 4 | 11.5 |
2 | ETH Zรผrich ๐จ๐ญ | 20 | 6 | 14 | 26 | 16.5 |
3 | University of California, Los Angeles ๐บ๐ธ | 13 | 36 | 15 | 13 | 19.25 |
4 | University of Michigan ๐บ๐ธ | 22 | 21 | 22 | 17 | 20.5 |
5 | University of Toronto ๐จ๐ฆ | 23 | 25 | 18 | 17 | 20.75 |
6 | Tsinghua University ๐จ๐ณ | 29 | 15 | 20 | 28 | 23 |
7 | University of Washington ๐บ๐ธ | 16 | 72 | 29 | 8 | 31.25 |
8 | University of California, San Diego ๐บ๐ธ | 18 | 54 | 33 | 21 | 31.5 |
9 | University of Melbourne ๐ฆ๐บ | 35 | 41 | 31 | 25 | 33 |
10 | Peking University ๐จ๐ณ | 49 | 23 | 23 | 51 | 36.5 |
11 | University of British Columbia ๐จ๐ฆ | 38 | 45 | 34 | 31 | 37 |
12 | University of Tokyo ๐ฏ๐ต | 26 | 24 | 36 | 73 | 39.75 |
13 | University of Wisconsin – Madison ๐บ๐ธ | 32 | 65 | 49 | 41 | 46.75 |
14= | LMU Munich ๐ฉ๐ช | 51 | 63 | 32 | 46 | 48 |
14= | University of Sydney ๐ฆ๐บ | 74 | 40 | 51 | 27 | 48 |
16 | University of Texas at Austin ๐บ๐ธ | 41 | 71 | 44 | 38 | 48.5 |
17= | Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) ๐จ๐ญ | 83 | 14 | 43 | 58 | 49.5 |
17= | University of Queensland ๐ฆ๐บ | 54 | 46 | 62 | 36 | 49.5 |
19 | McGill University ๐จ๐ฆ | 78 | 31 | 40 | 51 | 50 |
20= | Heidelberg University ๐ฉ๐ช | 57 | 64 | 42 | 54 | 54.25 |
20= | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ๐บ๐ธ | 30 | 95 | 56 | 36 | 54.25 |
22= | Australian National University ๐ฆ๐บ | 67 | 31 | 59 | 64 | 55.25 |
22= | Technical University of Munich ๐ฉ๐ช | 54 | 50 | 41 | 76 | 55.25 |
24 | University of Copenhagen ๐ฉ๐ฐ | 33 | 76 | 84 | 34 | 56.75 |
25 | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ๐บ๐ธ | 45 | 82 | 48 | 60 | 58.75 |
26 | University of New South Wales ๐ฆ๐บ | 74 | 44 | 67 | 51 | 59 |
27 | Kyoto University ๐ฏ๐ต | 34 | 38 | 54 | 125 | 62.75 |
28= | Monash University ๐ฆ๐บ | 85 | 55 | 64 | 48 | 63 |
28= | Sorbonne University ๐ซ๐ท | 39 | 83 | 87 | 43 | 63 |
30 | University of Zรผrich ๐จ๐ญ | 56 | 69 | 73 | 62 | 65 |
31 | University of Amsterdam ๐ณ๐ฑ | 101 | 61 | 66 | 40 | 67 |
32 | Georgia Institute of Technology ๐บ๐ธ | 101 | 80 | 38 | 66 | 71.25 |
33= | Chinese University of Hong Kong ๐ญ๐ฐ | 101 | 43 | 56 | 95 | 73.75 |
33= | University of Hong Kong ๐ญ๐ฐ | 151 | 22 | 39 | 83 | 73.75 |
35 | Utrecht University ๐ณ๐ฑ | 52 | 121 | 75 | 54 | 75.5 |
36 | University of California, Santa Barbara ๐บ๐ธ | 49 | 152 | 68 | 56 | 81.25 |
37 | Seoul National University ๐ฐ๐ท | 101 | 37 | 60 | 129 | 81.75 |
38 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University ๐จ๐ณ | 63 | 47 | 100 | 122 | 83 |
39 | University of California, Davis ๐บ๐ธ | 91 | 112 | 64 | 66 | 83.25 |
40 | Ohio State University ๐บ๐ธ | 101 | 108 | 80 | 45 | 83.5 |
41 | Purdue University ๐บ๐ธ | 79 | 109 | 94 | 53 | 83.75 |
42 | Zhejiang University ๐จ๐ณ | 58 | 53 | 94 | 135 | 85 |
43 | University of Minnesota ๐บ๐ธ | 40 | 177 | 85 | 47 | 87.25 |
44 | University of Maryland, College Park ๐บ๐ธ | 53 | 152 | 90 | 60 | 88.75 |
45 | University of Helsinki ๐ซ๐ฎ | 74 | 104 | 98 | 86 | 90.5 |
46= | Fudan University ๐จ๐ณ | 100 | 34 | 70 | 160 | 91 |
46= | Leiden University ๐ณ๐ฑ | 80 | 128 | 70 | 86 | 91 |
48 | University of Groningen ๐ณ๐ฑ | 69 | 128 | 80 | 92 | 92.25 |
49 | University of Science and Technology of China ๐จ๐ณ | 73 | 93 | 87 | 124 | 94.25 |
50 | Ghent University ๐ง๐ช | 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 โinstitutionโ 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 (โAverage World Rankโ) averages the four ranking listsโ rank placement for each university.ย
Some observations โ
- All of the top 50 public universities in the world rank on average within the top 100 universities โ public or private โ 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.