Academic Ranking of World Universities 2024: The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens – Top University in South-eastern Europe (ARWU – ‘The Shanghai Ranking’)

https://www.shanghairanking.com/rankings/arwu/2024

Shanghai Ranking Consultancy,a fully independent, non-profit organization, has recently announced the results of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU -also known as ‘The Shanghai Ranking’). According to the results, one Greek University places among the top 400, and another five among the best 1,000 in the world (See Table 1). The ranking includes a Cypriot University, the University of Cyprus, in the 701-800 bracket.

Once again, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens achieves top ranking in South-eastern Europe (finishing in the world’s 301-400 bracket). In addition, it places:

• 1^st in Greece among the six Universities in the top 1000, scoring higher than the other five Greek HEIs in all individual criteria (See Table 2),
• 1^st among Universities in the Balkans and Cyprus,
• in the top 25 of Universities in the Mediterranean,outperforming prominent Institutions from countries like Italy, France, and Spain,
• in the top 1.3% of Universities globally, considering there are around 32,000 Universities worldwide.

Following NKUA is Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in second place nationwide and in the 501-600 bracket globally. Next come the National Technical University of Athens,the University of Crete, and the University of Thessaly (all three in the 801-900 bracket). The University of Patras (in the 901-1000 bracket globally) rounds out the top 6 nationwide(See Table 1).

Regarding ranking by Academic Subjects, NKUA places in the 76-100 bracket in Clinical Medicine and Dentistry & Oral Sciences, in the 101-150 bracket inElectrical & Electronic Engineering, Telecommunication Engineering, and Nursing, and in the 151-200 bracket in Physics, Public Health, and Human Biological Sciences (See Table 3).

On the occasion of this new achievement, the Rector of NKUA, Professor Gerasimos Siasos, stated that:

‘Once again, the oldest and biggest University in Greece fills us with pride and a sense of responsibility for the future. With a new distinction entirely due to the academic staff of our Institution, who, despite difficulties, remain dedicated to producing high-quality research and scientific work. A work that is internationally recognized and positions our Institution among the most established and acclaimed Universities worldwide. We warmly congratulate all members of our University’s academic staff on this new accomplishment. It is a commitment of our Institution’s Leadership to intensify our efforts towards producing work that will make us reach new heights.’

The Shanghai Ranking is one of the three most significant world University rankings. It considers every University that boasts Nobel laureates or recipients of other internationally recognized prizes and awards among its graduates and faculty members, highly cited researchers, and papers published in Nature and Science. The tables also list Universities with many papers indexed by Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI).

From its inception in 2003 and through to 2018, ARWU ranked over 2,000 Universities annually to publish the best 500. Since 2019 it has been ranking more than 2,500 Universities each year to publish the highest-scoring 1,000.

ARWU ranks Universities by six (6) academic or research performance indicators. For each of those, the highest-scoring Institution receives a score of 100, while the scores of other Universities appear as a percentage of the top score. The indicators and their respective weights are as follows:

1. Alumni indicator (10%): The number of graduates of an Institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals,
2. Award indicator (20%): The number of faculty members of an Institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals,
3. HiCi indicator (20%): The number of faculty members of an Institution included in highly cited researchers’ lists,
4. Ν&S indicator (20%): The number of papers of an Institution published in Nature and Science between 2018 and 2022,
5. PUB indicator (20%): The number of papers of an Institution indexed by SCIE and SSCI, and
6. PCP indicator (10%): The Institution’s normalized per capita academic performance, calculated by dividing the weighted scores of the five indicators listed above by the total number of faculty members.

We should highlight here that the presence of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and the other five Greek Universities, in the Shanghai Ranking is indeed a great success. In this ranking, 30% of the overall score of an Institution derives from the number of its graduates and faculty members who have received the Nobel Prize or the Fields Medal in Mathematics, with other notable awards, medals, and personal honours staying under the radar. As a result, the score for Greek Universities in these criteria every year is zero.

Table 1: Greek Universities’ world rank, national rank, and performance over the individual indicators according to the Shanghai Ranking (ARWU 2024)

Institution	World Rank 2024	National Rank 2024	Alumni	Award	HiCi	N&S	PUB	PCP
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens	301-400	1	0.0	0.0	14.5	7.6	39.5	18.1
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki	501-600	2	0.0	0.0	6.5	4.0	36.5	11.8
National Technical University of Athens	801-900	3-5	0.0	0.0	6.5	0.0	25.4	11.1
University of Thessaly	801-900	3-5	0.0	0.0	6.5	4.4	24.0	10.7
University of Crete	801-900	3-5	0.0	0.0	6.5	6.6	20.8	9.6
University of Patras	901-1,000	6	0.0	0.0	0.0	3.8	26.6	11.4

Source: https://www.shanghairanking.com/rankings/arwu/2024

Table 2: NKUA’s performance over the individual indicators of ARWU for 2016-2024

No.	Indicators	Definition & weight of indicators	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016
1.	Quality of education (Alumni)	The number of graduates of an Institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (10%)	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
2.	Quality of faculty (Award)	The number of faculty members of an Institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (20%)	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
3.	Quality of faculty (HiCi)	The number of faculty members of an Institution included in highly cited researchers’ lists (20%)	14.5	11.4	15.3	14.6	9.9	10.4	13.5	15.4	14.5
4.	Research output (N&S)	The number of papers of an Institution published in Nature and Science (20%)	7.6	7.7	6.5	5.8	6.0	5.5	5.1	4.9	5.4
5.	Research output (PUB)	The number of papers of an Institution indexed by SCIE and SSCI (20%)	39.5	36.9	40.6	39.5	38.6	38.0	38.3	37.0	37.4
6.	Per capita performance (PCP)	The Institution’s normalized per capita academic performance, calculated by dividing the weighted scores of the five indicators listed above by the total number of faculty members (10%)	18.1	17.0	18.3	16.9	15.9	19.3	20.0	20.1	20.0

Source: ARWU Web page

Table 3: NKUA’s best ranked subjects

Subject	Rank
Clinical Medicine	76-100
Dentistry & Oral Sciences	76-100
Electrical & Electronic Engineering	101-150
Telecommunication Engineering	101-150
Nursing	101-150
Physics	151-200
Public Health	151-200
Human Biological Sciences	201-300

American Universities dominate ARWU 2024, with 38 Universities ranking in the top 100, 114 in the top 500, and 183 in the top 1,000. China comes in second with 225 Universities ranking in the top 1,000, 103 in the top 500, and 14 in the top 100. The United Kingdom has 62 Universities among the top 1,000, with 35 ranking in the top 500 and 8 in the top 100. 

Harvard University tops the ranking list for the 22^nd year, followed by Stanford. MIT rounds out the top 3,while in 4^th place appears the first Institution that is not American but European, the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Other top 10 Universities are the University of California, Berkeley (5^th), the University of Oxford (6^th), Princeton University (7^th), Columbia University (8^th), the California Institute of Technology (9^th), and the University of Chicago (10^th). The first European but not British University in the list is Paris-Saclay University (France – 12^th place worldwide),followed by ETH Zurich (Switzerland) in the 21^st place. Tsinghua University (China – 22^nd place) tops Universities in Asia. In Oceania, the University of Melbourne (37^th place) outperforms all other Universities in Australia and New Zealand. Across the African continent, the highest-ranking Institution is the University of Cape Town in South Africa, which places in the 201-300 bracket worldwide.