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Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)

Rankings that are known to be scientifically sound, stable, and transparent!

Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) is an annual publication for ranking of global universities drafted by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, which is an independent organisation engaged in research on higher education intelligence and consultation.

The first Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) was published on June 2003 by the Center for World-Class Universities (CWCU), and Graduate School of Education (formerly the Institute of Higher Education) of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. However, since 2009, the ARWU rankings have been published and copyrighted by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy.

Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)

This annual publication of world university rankings is based on five objective indicators:

The number of alumni and staff who accomplish Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals
The number of well-voiced researchers selected by Clarivate Analytics
The number of articles issued in journals of Nature and Science
The number of articles tabulated in Science Citation Index i.e., Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index
Per capita performance of the institution

Based on each indicator, the highest-scoring education institution is assigned with a score of 100, whereas other education institutions are calculated as a percentage of the highest score. While ARWU publishes the top 500 global universities every year based on objective indicators and third-party data, it published a list of best 1,000 global universities in 2020. ARWU ranks 2000 universities to publish the top 1,000.

Top 20 Universities in ARWU 2021

Institution	Country	Rank 2021	Rank 2020
Harvard University	US	1	1
Stanford University	US	2	2
University of Cambridge	UK	3	3
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	US	4	4
University of California, Berkeley	US	5	5
Princeton University	US	6	6
University of Oxford	UK	7	9
Columbia University	US	8	7
California Institute of Technology	US	9	8
University of Chicago	US	10	10
Yale University	US	11	11
Cornell University	US	12	12
Paris-Saclay University	France	13	14
University of California, Los Angeles	US	14	13
University of Pennsylvania	US	15	19
Johns Hopkins University	US	16	15
University College London	UK	17	16
University of California, San Diego	US	18	18
University of Washington	US	19	16
University of California, San Francisco	US	16	21

It is said that one primary reason for the significant influence of the ARWU rankings is that it uses a methodology which is scientifically sound, stable, and transparent. The next Webometrics Ranking is expected to come out in the month of August 2022.

Source: https://www.shanghairanking.com/news/arwu/2021

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Updated on September 22, 2021