Academic Ranking of World Universities 2015 results

China continues to advance, but Japan dips in Shanghai Jiao Tong ranking based on research strength

August 15, 2015
Ellie Bothwell
Harvard University statue
Source: iStock

Results of the 2016 Academic Ranking of World Universities (published 15 August)

Mainland China has continued to improve its performance in the Academic Ranking of World Universities, but the US and Europe still dominate the table.

China has 32 universities in the top 500 table, the same number as last year, but they are edging up the ranks. Seven of these are in the top 200, compared with six last year, now that Sun Yat-sen University has leaped from the 201-300 band to the 151-200 group. The country also still has six of its universities in the 201-300 band, after Jilin University moved up from the 301-400 band in last year’s table, which is based on research prowess and is compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Meanwhile, Japan’s performance has declined this year. The country has 18 institutions represented, down from 19, after Waseda University dropped off the table. Japan’s universities are also falling out of the upper echelons of the ranking: the country has one fewer institution in the top 200 (seven, compared with eight last year) and one more in the 401-500 band (six, compared with five last year).

Overall the US dominates the table, claiming more than half (51) the spots in the top 100. Harvard University is number one for the 13th year in a row. The rest of the top 10 also remains unchanged from last year, comprising Stanford University; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Cambridge; Princeton University; the California Institute of Technology; Columbia University; the University of Chicago; and the University of Oxford.

The UK has nine universities in the top 100, one more than last year, with the University of Warwick (92nd) making its debut in the top fifth of the table. However, many of the top UK institutions have slipped down the list: Imperial College London has dropped one place to 23rd, the University of Manchester has dropped three places to 41st, and the University of Edinburgh has dropped two places to 47th.

Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group, said that if the UK is to stay at the front of the pack, it must “fend off fierce competition from countries like China and Germany”.

She added: “Increasing funding in science, research and innovation is essential to keep our leading universities at the top of the table and to make sure the UK maximises its economic potential.”

ellie.bothwell@tesglobal.com

Below is a list of the top 100 institutions in the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2015 including links to the profiles of those institutions also featured in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2014-15.

Academic Ranking of World Universities 2015: top 100

Rank   Institution Country
1   Harvard University US
2   Stanford University US
3   Massachusetts Institute of Technology US
4   University of California, Berkeley US
5   University of Cambridge UK
6   Princeton University US
7   California Institute of Technology US
8   Columbia University US
9   University of Chicago US
10   University of Oxford UK
11   Yale University US
12   University of California, Los Angeles US
13   Cornell University US
14   University of California, San Diego US
15   University of Washington US
16   Johns Hopkins University US
17   University of Pennsylvania US
=18   University of California, San Francisco US
=18   University College London UK
20   ETH Zürich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich Switzerland
21   University of Tokyo Japan
22   University of Michigan US
23   Imperial College London UK
24   University of Wisconsin-Madison US
25   University of Toronto Canada
26   Kyoto University Japan
=27   New York University US
=27   Northwestern University US
29   University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign US
30   University of Minnesota US
31   Duke University US
32   Washington University in St Louis US
33   Rockefeller University US
34   University of Colorado at Boulder US
35   University of Copenhagen Denmark
36   Pierre and Marie Curie University France
37   University of Texas at Austin US
38   University of California, Santa Barbara US
39   University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill US
40   University of British Columbia Canada
=41   Paris-Sud University France
=41   University of Manchester UK
43   University of Maryland, College Park US
=44   University of Melbourne Australia
=44   University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas US
46   Heidelberg University Germany
47   University of Edinburgh UK
48   Karolinska Institute Sweden
49   University of Southern California US
50   University of California, Irvine US
51   Technical University of Munich Germany
52   Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Germany
53   Vanderbilt University US
54   University of Zurich Switzerland
55   King’s College London UK
56   Utrecht University Netherlands
57   University of California, Davis US
=58   University of Oslo Norway
=58   University of Geneva Switzerland
60   Pennsylvania State University US
=61   Uppsala University Sweden
=61   Carnegie Mellon University US
=61   Purdue University  US
=64   McGill University Canada
=64   Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey US
66   University of Bristol UK
=67   University of Helsinki Finland
=67   Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel
=67   Ohio State University US
70   University of Pittsburgh US
71   Ghent University Belgium
72   École Normale Supérieure France
=73   Aarhus University Denmark
=73   Boston University US
=75   University of Groningen Netherlands
=75   Brown University US
=77   Australian National University Australia
=77   University of Queensland Australia
=77   Technion Israel Institute of Technology Israel
=77   Nagoya University Japan
=77   Stockholm University Sweden
82   Leiden University Netherlands
83   University of Florida US
84   Rice University US
85   Osaka University Japan
86   Lomonosov Moscow State University Russia
=87   University of Western Australia Australia
=87   University of Strasbourg France
=87   University of Basel Switzerland
=90   KU Leuven Belgium
=90   University of Arizona US
92   University of Warwick UK
=93   Arizona State University US
=93   University of California, Santa Cruz US
=93   University of Utah US
96   McMaster University Canada
97   University of Bonn Germany
98   VU University Amsterdam Netherlands
99   Michigan State University US
100   Texas A&M University US
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