Athens U among global top 400 universities

The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens remains in the 1.3% of the best universities worldwide according to the results of the Academic Ranking of World Universities, also known as the Shanghai Ranking (ARWU – “Shanghai Ranking”)

In particular, the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), also known as the “Shanghai Ranking”, was announced by the independent non-profit organization ShanghaiRanking Consultancy. Based on the results of the Ranking, one Greek University is in the top four hundred universities worldwide and a total of four Greek universities are among the 1000 best in the world. The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens emerges as the leading Greek University for another year (positions 301-400). They are followed in positions 501-600 by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the University of Crete in positions 601-700, and the University of Thessaly in positions 801-900.

This ranking is considered one of the three most important global rankings. Methodologically, every University that has graduates and professors awarded with the Nobel prize or other important prizes, researchers whose articles have a high scientific impact, and articles and publications in the important journals Nature and Science is evaluated. In addition, the table includes Universities with a significant number of publications that have been included in the Science-Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) database and the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) database.

Since the publication of the ranking began in 2003, more than 2,000 universities have been evaluated and ranked, and the top 500 table is created from among these. From the 2019 ranking onwards, a total of 2,500 top-ranking universities are evaluated and a top 1,000 table of Universities worldwide is published.

The ranking

Universities are ranked based on six (6) indicators of academic and research performance. For each indicator the “best” institution is scored out of 100, so every other institution is scored by the percentage that falls short of the score of the first.

These indicators are the following:

1. ALUMNI Index: The number of graduates who have received prizes (Nobel, Field) with a weight of 10%,

2. AWARD index: The number of faculty members who have received prizes (Nobel, Field ) with a weight of 20%,

3. HiCi Index: The number of faculty members included in lists of researchers with a very high number of hetero-citations with a weight of 20%;

4. N&S index: The number of publications in Nature and Science journals from 2017 to 2021 with a weight of 20%,

5. PUB index: The number of publications included in the Science Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index databases with a weight of 20%,

6. PCP index: The Normalized per capita academic performance, which results from the weighted sum of the above indicators by the number of faculty members, with a weight of 10%.

The Rating

It should be emphasized that their inclusion in the Shanghai ranking table (ARWU) is a particularly great success for both the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and for the other three Greek Universities. In this particular ranking, 30% of the total score results from graduates and professors who have won a Nobel or FIELD METAL prize in the field of mathematics, while other important awards, medals and personal honors are not taken into account. Consequently, Greek Universities in the specific criteria get zero every year.

The positive assessment of the position of Greek universities, and in particular of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in this particular ranking, is reinforced by the following data: According to Dr. Isidro Aguillo, who heads the Webometrics research group, 31,097 Universities are active worldwide. Most rankings collect and process data on this number of Universities.

Based on specific and predetermined criteria, they calculate indicators and the overall score of each University. They will then select the first 500 or 1000 Universities and create the ranking table. Based on the above indisputable data, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, which is in the top 400 with a simple reduction in percentage, is in approximately 1.3% of the best Universities Worldwide. Calculating respectively the position of the rest of the Greek universities, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is at 1.9%, the University of Crete at 2.25% and the University of Thessaly at 2.9% of the best universities worldwide. Given the size and conditions, the achievement of such performances is a significant success for Greek universities.

US institutions dominate

Universities from the United States dominate this year’s ranking, with 8 universities in the top 10, 39 universities in the top 100, 127 universities in the top 500, and 196 universities in the top 1000. China has 186 universities ranked in the top 1000, 83 universities in the top 500, and 9 in the top 100. The UK has 63 Universities in the Top1000 universities, with 38 of them in the Top 500, 8 in the Top 100 and 2 Universities in the top 10 Universities worldwide.

Harvard is in first place of the ranking, for the 20th year in a row, followed by Stanford, and then the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), while  Cambridge, a European institution is in 4th place.

The first European and non-British university in the top twenty is the newly established French University Paris-Saclay in 16th place, followed by the Zurich Institute of Technology in 20th place. The Universities of Tokyo (Japan – 24th place worldwide) and Tsinghua (China – 26th place) lead the Universities of Asia. From Oceania the University of Melbourne is ranked highest among Australian and New Zealand Universities (32nd worldwide). From the African Continent, the best position is occupied by South Africa, the University of Cape Town (position 201-300 worldwide).

High research performance

A particularly important element that should be highlighted for the position of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, is the confirmation of the Institution’s high research performance, as reflected in the score of the individual indicators over the last six years. According to the overall data for the period 2017-2022, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens for 2022:

1. Achieved a grade increase in all 4 research criteria, compared to 2021

2. In the criteria of (a) the number of publications in Nature and Science journals and (b) the number of publications included in the Science Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index databases, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens achieved its highest score in the last six years.

3. It remains in the 1.3% of the best Universities worldwide with clear upward trends.