The largest Italian state university, La Sapienza has improved upon last year’s rank, rising one notch in the standings, moving from the 151-200 range to the 101-150 range.
The top 100 universities are ranked individually with scores, but those lower on the ladder, like La Sapienza, are put into ranges of 50.
Harvard has topped the rankings for the last 20 years, followed by Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Other top 10 universities are Cambridge (4th), Berkeley (5th), Princeton (6th), Oxford (7th), Columbia (8th), Caltech (9th), and Chicago (10th).
There are six assessment parameters: Nobel Prize winners and Fields Medals among alumni (10%) or researchers (20%), the number of researchers ranked highly by Clarivate Analytics (20%), publications in “Nature and Science” (20%), and technological and social citations (20%).
These parameters are then correlated with the academic staff, providing a further parameter of per capita productivity (10%).
“This year’s position is an excellent result for La Sapienza, which sees its top spot nationally confirmed,” said Dean Antonella Polimeni.
“The ranking reaffirms the prestige of the university in the international panorama thanks to the quality and scientific value of our academic community, within which the recent Nobel Prize for Physics awarded to Giorgio Parisi represents maximum recognition. The ranking rewards in particular excellence in scientific research, placing La Sapienza among the reference research universities at a global level”.
In Europe, the top spot is still held by Paris-Saclay University in 16th place, followed by ETH in Zurich in 20th.
Germany has four universities in the top 100. Of Asian universities, Tokyo University is 24th while Beijing’s Tsinghua University has moved up two spots, now the second best in Asia. Melbourne University, in 32nd place, is the top Oceania uni.
In April La Sapienza came to top in Italy in the Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR), in 113th place, and was among the world’s top 200 universities for QS (Quacquarelli Simonds) World University Rankings in 2023. QS has also made La Sapienza top in the world for Classics and Ancient History, cementing its esteemed reputation within the global academia landscape.
