Ghent and Leuven stay in top 100 of world's best universities

The two largest Flemish universities remain in the top 100 of the world's best universities, despite losing some ground compared to last year's ranking. Ghent University (UGent) is the Belgian number one with position 74, followed by the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) in 95th place. For the 20th year in a row, the renowned American university Harvard is at the top of the Shanghai ranking of the best universities in the world.

Université Paris-Saclay is the first non-Anglo university, at position 16. In Belgium, UGent (74) and KU Leuven (95) are in the top 100, but last year they did better with places 71 and 87 respectively. As in previous years, the two are hence regarded as the best universities in Belgium.

Other Belgian universities fall within the 101-700 range of the ranking. The Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) is ranked between 101 and 150, while the French-speaking UCL and Flemish Antwerp University (UAntwerpen) are ranked between 201 and 300. The University of Liège and the Dutch-speaking Free University of Brussels are ranked between 301 and 400, while Hasselt University (the lowest-ranked Flemish institution) is ranked between 601 and 700.

Among the six criteria used by Shanghai are the number of Nobel Prize winners, the number of most-cited scientists within their discipline, and the number of publications in the scientific journals Science and Nature.

The ranking is traditionally dominated by American universities. Stanford University is second and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) rounds off the top three. The British University of Cambridge, in fourth place, is the first institution from a country other than the US. Cambridge's British 'competitor' Oxford is in seventh place. All the other institutions in the top ten are American: Berkeley (5), Princeton (6), Columbia (8), California Institute of Technology (9) and University of Chicago (10). The entire top 100 comprises 39 American institutions.

The 'Academic Ranking of World Universities' (ARWU) is distilled annually by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, an independent organisation focusing on higher education. For the ranking, more than 2.500 research institutions around the world have been analysed so far. Among the six criteria used by Shanghai are the number of Nobel Prize winners, the number of most-cited scientists within their discipline, and the number of publications in the scientific journals Science and Nature. The ranking has been published yearly since 2003.

(BRV)

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