ShanghaiRanking Academic Ranking of World Universities 2019 results announced

Top universities in the world featured in the ShanghaiRanking ARWU league table for 2019

August 15 2019
By Seeta Bhardwa
ShanghaiRanking Academic Ranking of World Universities 2019

For the 17th year running, Harvard University has topped the Academic Ranking of World Universities compiled by consultancy ShanghaiRanking. 

The top three in the annual ranking remains unchanged from last year, with Stanford University and the University of Cambridge taking the second and third places respectively. The top 10 is completed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (fourth), University of California, Berkeley (fifth), Princeton University (sixth), University of Oxford (seventh), Columbia University (eighth), California Institute of Technology (ninth), and the University of Chicago (10th).

The US has the highest number of institutions in the top 100 with 45 universities present. The second most represented country in the top 100 is the UK with eight universities. 

The University of Tokyo (25th) and Kyoto University (32nd) are the highest ranked Asian universities. 

The ShanghaiRanking Consultancy is an independent organisation dedicated to research on higher education intelligence and consultations. It has been the official publisher of the Academic Ranking of World Universities since 2009. 

Top five universities in the 2019 ShanghaiRanking Academic Ranking of World Universities

1. Harvard University 

Harvard University is the oldest university in the US, having been formed in 1636, and is considered one of the most prestigious in the world.

The museums affiliated with the institution hold more than 28 million works of art, artefacts, specimens and instruments. 

Harvard’s alumni include eight US presidents, several foreign heads of state and 62 living billionaires. Some 130 Nobel laureates, 18 Fields Medallists, and 13 Turing Award winners have been affiliated with the university as students or staff.

2. Stanford University 

Stanford University is known for nurturing an entrepreneurial spirit among its students, a legacy of its founders, Jane and Leland Stanford. It is also renowned for its relationship with Silicon Valley. 

The 8,000-acre campus is located in California’s Bay Area. There are more than 625 student associations at the university, including the student newspaper, The Stanford Daily.

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3. University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is the only UK university to feature in the top five. Cambridge affiliates have won some 90 Nobel prizes, and are represented in every category.

The list of high-achieving alumni from the institution is endless, but prominent among them are Stephen Hawking, David Attenborough, Virginia Woolf and Zadie Smith.

4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Researchers at this specialist science and technology institution invented one of the first large-scale high-speed computers in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1951. The Whirlwind I is still on display at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum.

Some 25,800 active companies have been started or co-founded by living MIT alumni, showing just how much impact MIT has had on innovation. 

5. University of California, Berkeley

Rounding off the top five is the University of California, Berkeley. The university is not without its unusual traditions, and students are expected to roll down 4.0 Hill on campus to get good grades. However, if you step on the Berkeley seal nearby, it has been said that you will be cursed for the year.  

The tradition obviously works as Berkeley faculty, alumni, and researchers include 91 Nobel laureates. The institution’s alumni have also achieved 13 Fields Medals, 23 Turing Awards, 45 MacArthur Fellowships, 20 Academy Awards, 14 Pulitzer Prizes and 117 Olympic gold medals.  

Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2019 results: top 500 universities

ARWU 2019 rank Institution Country/Region
1 Harvard University United States
2 Stanford University United States
3 University of Cambridge United Kingdom
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States
5 University of California, Berkeley United States
6 Princeton University United States
7 University of Oxford United Kingdom
8 Columbia University United States
9 California Institute of Technology United States
10 University of Chicago United States
=11 University of California, Los Angeles United States
=11 Yale University United States
13 Cornell University United States
14 University of Washington United States
15 UCL United Kingdom
16 Johns Hopkins University United States
17 University of Pennsylvania United Kingdom
18 University of California, San Diego United States
19 ETH Zurich Switzerland
=20 University of California, San Francisco  United States
=20 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor United States
22 Washington University in St Louis United States
23 Imperial College London United Kingdom
24 University of Toronto Canada
25 The University of Tokyo Japan
26 University of Copenhagen Denmark
27 University of Wisconsin United States
28 Duke University United States
29 Northwestern University United States
30 New York University United States
31 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom
32 Kyoto University Japan
=33 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States
=33 University of Manchester United Kingdom
=35 The Rockefeller University United States
=35 University of British Columbia Canada
37 Paris-Sud University (Paris 11) France
=38 Karolinska Institute Sweden
=38 University of Colorado Boulder United States
=38 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign United States
=41 University of Melbourne Australia
=41 University of Minnesota United States
43 Tsinghua University China
44 Sorbonne University France
45 University of Texas at Austin United States
46 University of Maryland, College Park United States
47 Heidelberg University Germany
48 University of California, Santa Barbara United States
=49 The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio United States
=49  Utrecht University Netherlands
51 King’s College London United Kingdom
52 LMU Munich Germany
53 Peking University China
54 University of Queensland Australia
=55 University of Southern California United States
=55 Vanderbilt University United States
57 Technical University of Munich Germany
58 University of Geneva Switzerland
59 University of Oslo Norway
60 Aarhus University Denmark
61 University of Zurich Switzerland
62 Uppsala University Sweden
63 University of Helsinki Finland
64 University of Bristol United Kingdom
65 University of Groningen Netherlands
66 Ghent University Belgium
67 National University of Singapore Singapore
=68 Erasmus University Rotterdam Netherlands
=68 The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center United States
=70 University of Bonn Germany
=70 Zhejiang University China
72 Purdue University United States
=73 Monash University Canada
=73 Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Singapore
=73 Stockholm University Sweden
=76 Boston University United States
=76 Australian National University Australia
78 École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland
79 École Normale Supérieure France
=80 University of California, Irvine United States
=80 University of Sydney Australia
=82 Leiden University Netherlands
=82 Shanghai Jiao Tong University China
84 Brown University United States
=85 KU Leuven Belgium
=85 Technion Israel Institute of Technology Israel 
=87 Lomonosov Moscow State University Russia
=87 University of Basel Switzerland
=89 University of Pittsburgh United States
=90 McGill University Canada
=90 McMaster University Canada
=90 Nagoya University Japan
=90 University of California, Davis United States
94 UNSW Sydney Australia
=95 Carnegie Mellon University United States
=95 Rice University United States
=95 University of Florida United States
98 Penn State (Main campus) United States
99 University of Western Australia Australia
100 Ohio State University (Main campus) United States
101-150 Aix-Marseille University France
101-150 Arizona State University United States
101-150 Baylor College of Medicine United States
101-150 Cardiff University United Kingdom
101-150 Case Western Reserve University United Kingdom
101-150 Emory University United States
101-150 Fudan University China
101-150 Georgia Institute of Technology United States
101-150 Huazhong University of Science and Technology China
101-150 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai United States
101-150 Indiana University (Bloomington) United States
101-150 King Abdulaziz University Saudi Arabia
101-150 Lund University Sweden
101-150 Mayo Medical School United States
101-150 Michigan State University United States
101-150 Norwegian University of Science and Technology Norway
101-150 Radboud University Nijmegen Netherlands
101-150 Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey United States
101-150 Seoul National University South Korea
101-150 Sun Yat-sen University China
101-150 Technical University of Denmark Denmark
101-150 Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
101-150 The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel
101-150 University of Adelaide Australia
101-150 University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
101-150 University of Sheffield United Kingdom
101-150 Tohoku University Japan
101-150 Tokyo Institute of Technology Japan
101-150 Grenoble Alpes University France
101-150 University of Alberta Canada
101-150 University of Amsterdam Netherlands
101-150 University of Arizona United States
101-150 University of Bern Switzerland
101-150 University of Birmingham United Kingdom
101-150 University of California, Santa Cruz United States
101-150 Goethe University Frankfurt Germany
101-150 University of Freiburg Germany
101-150 University of Göttingen Germany
101-150 University of Leeds United Kingdom
101-150 University of Liverpool United Kingdom
101-150 University of Nottingham United Kingdom
101-150 University of São Paulo Brazil
101-150 University of Science and Technology of China China
101-150 University of Southampton United Kingdom
101-150 University of Strasbourg France
101-150 University of Utah United States
101-150 University of Warwick United Kingdom
101-150 Paris Diderot University – Paris 7 France
101-150 Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Netherlands
101-150 Weizmann Institute of Science Israel
151-200 Université Catholique de Louvain Belgium
151-200 Central South University China
151-200 Delft University of Technology Netherlands
151-200 Harbin Institute of Technology China
151-200 Hokkaido University Japan
151-200 King Saud University Saudi Arabia
151-200 London School of Economics and Political Science United Kingdom
151-200 Nanjing University China
151-200 National Taiwan University Taiwan
151-200 Osaka University Japan
151-200 Queen Mary University of London United Kingdom
151-200 Sapienza University of Rome Italy
151-200 Sichuan University China
151-200 Soochow University China
151-300 Southeast University China
151-200 Sungkyunkwan University South Korea
151-200 Tel Aviv University Israel
151-200 Texas A&M University United States
151-200 University of Calgary Canada
151-200 University of Glasgow United Kingdom
151-200 Trinity College Dublin Ireland
151-200 Tufts University United States
151-200 Université Libre de Bruxelles Belgium
151-200 University of Barcelona Spain
151-200 University of California, Riverside United States
151-200 University of Cologne Germany
151-200 University of Electronic Science and Technology of China China
151-200 University of Exeter United Kingdom
151-200 University of Gothenburg Sweden
151-200 University of Lausanne Switzerland
151-200 University of Lisbon Portugal
151-200 University of Massachusetts Amherst United States
151-200 University of Massachusetts Medical School - Worcester United States
151-200 University of Milan Italy
151-200 University of Missouri-Columbia United States
151-200 Montpellier University France
151-200 University of Montreal Canada
151-200 University of Münster Germany
151-200 University of Ottawa Canada
151-200 Paris Descartes University France
151-200 University of Pisa Italy
151-200 University of Rochester United States
151-200 University of Sussex United Kingdom
151-200 University of Tübingen Germany
151-200 University of Vienna Austria
151-200 University of Virginia (Main campus) United States
151-200 Wageningen University & Research Netherlands
151-200 University of Waterloo Canada
151-200 Wuhan University China
151-200 Xi’an Jiaotong University China
201-300 Aalborg University Denmark
201-300 Autonomous University of Barcelona Spain
201-300 Beihang University China
201-300 Beijing Normal University China
201-300 Charles University in Prague Czech
201-300 City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
201-300 Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 France
201-300 Colorado State University United States
201-300 Complutense University of Madrid Spain
201-300 Curtin University Australia
201-300 Dalhousie University Canada
201-300 Dalian University of Technology China
201-300 Deakin University Australia
201-300 Durham University United Kingdom
201-300 Florida State University United States
201-300 George Mason University United States
201-300 Iowa State University United States
201-300 James Cook University Australia
201-300 Jilin University China
201-300 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Germany
201-300 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Saudi Arabia
201-300 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) South Korea
201-300 Korea University South Korea
201-300 KTH Royal Institute of Technology Sweden
201-300 Kyushu University Japan
201-300 Laval University Canada
201-300 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine United Kingdom
201-300 Maastricht University Netherlands
201-300 Macquarie University Australia
201-300 Medical University of Vienna Austria
201-300 Nankai University China
201-300 National Autonomous University of Mexico Mexico
201-300 Newcastle University United Kingdom
201-300 North Carolina State University  
201-300 Northeastern University United States
201-300 Oregon Health and Science University United States
201-300 Oregon State University United States
201-300 Paul Sabatier University (Toulouse 3) France
201-300 Polytechnic University of Milan Italy
201-300 RWTH Aachen University Germany
201-300 Shandong University China
201-300 South China University of Technology China
201-300 Stony Brook University United States
201-300 George Washington University United States
201-300 Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong
201-300 The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong
201-300 University of Auckland New Zealand
201-300 University of Georgia United States
201-300 University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston United States
201-300 Tianjin University China
201-300 Tongji University China
201-300 TU Dresden Germany
201-300 University of Aberdeen United Kingdom
201-300 University of Alabama at Birmingham United States
201-300 University of Antwerp Belgium
201-300 University of Bologna Italy
201-300 University of Bordeaux France
201-300 University of Buenos Aires Argentina
201-300 University of Cape Town South Africa
201-300 University of Connecticut United States
201-300 University of Delaware United States
201-300 University of Düsseldorf Germany
201-300 University of East Anglia United Kingdom
201-300 University of Erlangen-Nuremberg Germany
201-300 University of Florence Italy
201-300 University of Granada Spain
201-300 University of Hamburg Germany
201-300 University of Hawai’i at Mānoa United States
201-300 University of Houston United States
201-300 University of Illinois at Chicago United States
201-300 University of Innsbruck Austria
201-300 University of Iowa United States
201-300 University of Kansas United States
201-300 University of Kiel Germany
201-300 Leipzig University Germany
201-300 University of Liège Belgium
201-300 Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz Germany
201-300 University of Maryland, Baltimore United States
201-300 University of Miami United States
201-300 University of Nebraska-Lincoln  United States
201-300 University of Padua Italy
201-300 University of South Florida United States
201-300 University of Tasmania Australia
201-300 University of Technology Sydney Australia
201-300 University of Tennessee-Knoxville United States
201-300 University of the Witwatersrand South Africa
201-300 University of Toulouse 1 France
201-300 University of Tsukuba Japan
201-300 University of Turin Italy
201-300 University of Ulm Germany
201-300 University of Valencia Spain
201-300 University of Wollongong Australia
201-300 University of Würzburg Germany
201-300 Virginia Commonwealth University United States
201-300 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University United States
201-300 Vrije Universiteit Brussel  Belgium
201-300 Western University Canada
201-300 Xiamen University China
201-300 Yeshiva University United States
201-300 Yonsei University South Korea
301-400 Aalto University Finland
301-400 Autonomous University of Madrid Spain
301-400 Beijing Institute of Technology China
301-400 Brandeis University United States
301-400 Cairo University Egypt
301-400 Capital Medical University China
301-400 Chalmers University of Technology Sweden
301-400 China Agricultural University China
301-400 China Medical University, Taiwan Taiwan
301-400 Chongqing University China
301-400 Dartmouth College United States
301-400 Drexel University United States
301-400 East China University of Science and Technology China
301-400 École Normale Supérieure de Lyon France
301-400 École Polytechnique France
301-400 Eindhoven University of Technology Netherlands
301-400 ESPCI ParisTech France
301-400 Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Brazil
301-400 Georgetown University United States
301-400 Griffith University Australia
301-400 Hannover Medical School Germany
301-400 Hanyang University South Korea
301-400 Hunan University China
301-400 Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis United States
301-400 Jagiellonian University Poland
301-400 Kansas State University United States
301-400 Keio University Japan
301-400 Kyung Hee University South Korea
301-400 La Trobe University Australia
301-400 Lancaster University United Kingdom
301-400 Lanzhou University China
301-400 Linköping University Sweden
301-400 Louisiana State University United States
301-400 Nanjing University of Science and Technology China
301-400 National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Greece
301-400 National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) Taiwan
301-400 Northwestern Polytechnical University China
301-400 Paris Dauphine University France
301-400 Pompeu Fabra University Spain
301-400 Queen’s University Canada
301-400 Queen's University Belfast United Kingdom
301-400 Queensland University of Technology Australia
301-400 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute United States
301-400 RMIT University Australia
301-400 Saint Petersburg State University Russia
301-400 Shenzhen University China
301-400 Simon Fraser University Canada
301-400 Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Sweden
301-400 Swinburne University of Technology Australia
301-400 Technical University of Berlin Germany
301-400 Temple University United States
301-400 University of Dundee United Kingdom
301-400 University of New Mexico (Main campus) United States
301-400 University of Reading United Kingdom
301-400 University of Texas at Dallas United States
301-400 The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas United States
301-400 Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) South Korea
301-400 São Paulo State University (UNESP) Brazil
301-400 University at Buffalo United States
301-400 University College Dublin Ireland
301-400 University of Bergen Norway
301-400 Ruhr University Bochum Germany
301-400 University of Campinas Brazil
301-400 University of Central Florida United States
301-400 University of Cincinnati United States
301-400 University of Colorado Denver United States
301-400 University of Duisburg-Essen Germany
301-400 University of Guelph Canada
301-400 University of Jena Germany
301-400 University of Kentucky United States
301-400 University of Leicester United Kingdom
301-400 University of Lille France
301-400 University of Lorraine France
301-400 University of Malaya Malaysia
301-400 University of Manitoba Canada
301-400 University of Naples Federico II Italy
301-400 University of Notre Dame United States
301-400 University of Oregon United States
301-400 University of Otago New Zealand
301-400 University of Oulu Finland
301-400 University of Pavia Italy
301-400 University of Porto Portugal
301-400 University of Saskatchewan Canada
301-400 University of Science and Technology Beijing China
301-400 University of South Carolina-Columbia United States
301-400 University of Southern Denmark Denmark
301-400 University of St Andrews United Kingdom
301-400 University of Stuttgart Germany
301-400 University of Surrey United Kingdom
301-400 University of Tartu Estonia
301-400 University of Tehran Iran
301-400 University of Turku Finland
301-400 University of Vermont United States
301-400 University of Victoria Canada
301-400 Western Sydney University Australia
301-400 University of York United Kingdom
301-400 Victoria University of Wellington New Zealand
301-400 Vienna University of Technology Austria
301-400 Washington State University United States
301-400 Wuhan University of Technology China
401-500 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Greece
401-500 Bar-Ilan University Israel
401-500 Beijing University of Chemical Technology China
401-500 Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Israel
401-500 Boston College United States
401-500 Brigham Young University United States
401-500 Catholic University of the Sacred Heart Italy
401-500 Chiba University Japan
401-500 China University of Geosciences, Wuhan China
401-500 City University of New York  United States
401-500 Clemson University United States
401-500 CUNY Graduate School and University Center United States
401-500 Federal University of Minas Gerais Brazil
401-500 Federal University  of Rio Grande do Sul Brazil
401-500 Flinders University Australia
401-500 Florida International University United States
401-500 Fuzhou University CHina
401-500 Harbin Engineering University China
401-500 Huazhong Agricultural University China
401-500 Indian Institute of Science India
401-500 Istanbul University Turkey
401-500 Jiangsu University China
401-500 Jinan University China
401-500 King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals Saudi Arabia
401-500 Kobe University Japan
401-500 Kyungpook National University South Korea
401-500 Mahidol University Thailand
401-500 Medical University of Innsbruck Austria
401-500 Medical University of South Carolina United States
401-500 Mines ParisTech France
401-500 Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology Russia
401-500 Nanchang University China
401-500 Nanjing Agricultural University China
401-500 Nanjing Medical University China
401-500 Nanjing Tech University China
401-500 Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics China
401-500 Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology China
401-500 NOVA University of Lisbon Portugal
401-500 Northeastern University China
401-500 Novosibirsk State University Russia
401-500 Okayama University Japan
401-500 Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Peking Union Medical College China
401-500 Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) South Korea
401-500 Polytechnic University of Valencia Spain
401-500 Pusan National University South Korea
401-500 Qingdao University China
401-500 Saint Louis University United States
401-500 Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa Italy
401-500 Shanghai University China
401-500 Sharif University of Technology Iran
401-500 Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) China
401-500 Stellenbosch University South Africa
401-500 Stockholm School of Economics Sweden
401-500 Swansea University United Kingdom
401-500 Tehran University of Medical Sciences Iran
401-500 University of Newcastle United States
401-500 Thomas Jefferson University United States
401-500 Tokyo University of Science Japan
401-500 Tulane University United States
401-500 Umeå University Sweden
401-500 State University of New York United States
401-500 University College Cork Ireland
401-500 University of Bath United Kingdom
401-500 University of Belgrade Serbia
401-500 University of California, Merced United States
401-500 University of Canterbury New Zealand
401-500 University of Chile Chile
401-500 University of Eastern Finland Finland
401-500 University of Fribourg Switzerland
401-500 University of Genoa Italy
401-500 University of Graz Austria
401-500 University of Halle-Wittenberg Germany
401-500 University of Iceland Iceland
401-500 University of Konstanz Germany
401-500 University of KwaZulu-Natal South Africa
401-500 University of Milan Italy
401-500 University of Minho Portugal
401-500 University of Montana United States
401-500 University of North Texas United States
401-500 University of Oklahoma United States
401-500 University of Oviedo Spain
401-500 University of Perugia Italy
401-500 University of Potsdam Germany
401-500 University of Pretoria South Africa
401-500 University of Seville Spain
401-500 University of the Balearic Islands Spain
401-500 University of the Basque Country Spain
401-500 University of Trento Italy
401-500 University of Twente Netherlands
401-500 Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines France
401-500 University of Warsaw Poland
401-500 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee United States
401-500 University of Wyoming United States
401-500 University of Zagreb Croatia
401-500 University of Zaragoza Spain
401-500 Utah State University United States
401-500 Wake Forest University United States
401-500 Wayne State University United States
401-500 West Virginia University United States
401-500 Zhengzhou University China

Read more: Best universities in the world 2018

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