Times Higher Education, in partnership with ELSEVIER, has recently published the results of its World University Rankings (THE WUR) for 2022-23.
THE WUR is in the top three of rankings internationally as far as impact and validity are concerned, the other two being QS World University Rankings and the Academic Ranking of World Universities (also known as the Shanghai List). In this year’s edition of THE WUR, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens ranked 1st among the 16 Greek Universities included in the table, while remaining in the 401-500 bracket worldwide. It is the first time that the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens ranks 1st nationally in THE WUR.
Please find below the relevant information.
Thanos Dimopoulos
Rector of NKUA
NKUA Ranked 1st among Greek Universities according to Times Higher Education World University Rankings
Times Higher Education, in partnership with ELSEVIER, has recently published the results of its World University Rankings (THE WUR) for 2022-23.
THE WUR is in the top three of rankings internationally as far as impact and validity are concerned, the other two being QS World University Rankings and the Academic Ranking of World Universities (also known as the Shanghai List). In this year’s edition of THE WUR, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens ranked 1st among the 16 Greek Universities included in the table,while remaining in the 401-500 bracket worldwide. It is the first time that the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens ranks 1st nationally in THE WUR.
World University Rankings 2023 include 1,799 Universities across 104 countries, among which Greece with 2 of its Universities (NKUA and the University of Crete) in the top 500. This year’s ranking analysed over 121 million citations across more than 15.5 million research publications and included survey responses from 40,000 scholars globally. Times Higher Education collected over 680,000 datapoints from more than 2,500 Institutions that submitted data.
According to the results, NKUA and the University of Crete ranked joint 1st nationally and remained in the 401-500 bracket internationally (Table 1), while Harokopio University dropped to 2nd nationally and 501-600 internationally. Six (6) other Greek Universities, namely the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the Athens University of Economics and Business, the University of Ioannina, the National Technical University of Athens, the University of the Aegean, and the University of Thessaly came 3rd nationally, and 801-1000 internationally. The Technical University of Crete and the University of Patras ranked joint 4th nationally and 1001-1200 internationally, followed by the Democritus University of Thrace, the University of Western Macedonia, and the International Hellenic University, which ranked joint 5th nationally and 1201-1500 internationally. Finally, joint 6th nationally and 1500+ internationally came the University of West Attica and the Hellenic Open University.
The study of Table 2, which is a comparative presentation of NKUA’s performance for 2016-22, yields useful information. Based on these data–and in comparison with Table 1:
- NKUA tops the research influence pillar nationally. It should be noted that the improvement in this pillar has been continuous and impressive. Compared to 2016, NKUA has improved its score by around 76%. With this year’s performance, NKUA secured 276th place globally across the research pillar.
- The international outlook and extroversion of our Institution are also improving. More specifically, between 2016 and 2022, NKUA increased its overall score by 31% and remained 1st among Greek Universities in this pillar.
- Between 2022 and 2023, NKUA improved its score compared to 2021-22 in three pillars out of five.
- According to THE WUR, NKUA is in the top 15% of Universities internationally for the impact and influence of its research activity.
| Table 1: Position and performance of the sixteen (16) Greek Universities included in the 1,799 top World Universities according to Times Higher Education Rankings (2022-23) | ||||||||
| Institution Name | World Rank | Country Rank | Overall Score | Teaching Score | Research Score | Citations Score | Industry Income Score | Intl Outlook Score |
| National and Kapodistrian University of Athens | 401-500 | 1 | 42.1–44.9 | 22.1 | 20.1 | 82.4 | 67.9 | 56.3 |
| University of Crete | 401-500 | 1 | 42.1–44.9 | 20.6 | 26.0 | 82.2 | 51.0 | 48.4 |
| Harokopio University | 501–600 | 2 | 39.3–42.0 | 23.2 | 24.2 | 76.2 | 43.9 | 43.9 |
| Aristotle University of Thessaloniki | 801-1000 | 3 | 29.8–33.9 | 19.0 | 16.2 | 56.9 | 41.4 | 40.4 |
| Athens University of Economics and Business | 801-1000 | 3 | 29.8–33.9 | 18.3 | 26.6 | 42.1 | 38.9 | 48.4 |
| University of the Aegean | 801-1000 | 3 | 29.8–33.9 | 17.3 | 19.3 | 53.7 | 62.8 | 34.7 |
| University of Ioannina | 801-1000 | 3 | 29.8–33.9 | 15.5 | 14.5 | 60.6 | 39.0 | 43.4 |
| National Technical University of Athens | 801-1000 | 3 | 29.8–33.9 | 23.3 | 21.6 | 43.9 | 99.1 | 38.1 |
| University of Thessaly | 801-1000 | 3 | 29.8–33.9 | 16.0 | 14.4 | 61.3 | 38.7 | 37.8 |
| University of Patras | 1001-1200 | 4 | 24.4–29.7 | 16.9 | 16.6 | 43.7 | 40.9 | 38.1 |
| Technical University of Crete | 1001-1200 | 4 | 24.4–29.7 | 14.1 | 11.9 | 57.4 | 41.4 | 43.4 |
| Democritus University of Thrace | 1201-1500 | 5 | 18.4–24.3 | 15.2 | 13.8 | 36.9 | 37.9 | 32.6 |
| International Hellenic University | 1201-1500 | 5 | 18.4–24.3 | 11.7 | 10.8 | 34.4 | 37.3 | 31.2 |
| University of Western Macedonia | 1201-1500 | 5 | 18.4–24.3 | 17.8 | 15.4 | 26.4 | 37.7 | 28.9 |
| Hellenic Open University | 1501+ | 6 | 10.4–18.3 | 19.8 | 8.1 | 23.0 | 37.0 | 23.4 |
| University of West Attica | 1501+ | 6 | 10.4–18.3 | 12.0 | 9.8 | 22.8 | 37.3 | 26.0 |
| Source: Times Higher Education World University Rankings |
| Table 2: Comparative presentation of NKUA’s performance for 2016-22 in THE WUR | ||||||||
| Pillar/Score per Year | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | Participation of Pillar in Overall Score |
| Teaching | 22.1 | 22.7 | 23.2 | 21.8 | 22.4 | 26.3 | 27 | 30% |
| Intl Outlook | 56.3 | 55.2 | 53.3 | 52 | 51 | 46.2 | 43 | 7,5% |
| Industry Income | 67.9 | 68.6 | 58.6 | 55.4 | 51.3 | 49.3 | 38 | 2,5% |
| Research | 20.1 | 18.1 | 15.8 | 15 | 14 | 13.6 | 16,4 | 30% |
| Citations | 82.4 | 81.1 | 76.9 | 72.9 | 62.3 | 54.4 | 46,8 | 30% |
| Source: Times Higher Education World University Rankings |
Summary of the Rankings methodology
Times Higher Education World University Rankings use 13 indicators, each combined into 5 pillars, i.e., teaching (30%), research (30%), research influence/citations (30%), international outlook (7.5%), and industry income (2.5%).
The analysis of pillars into indicators is as follows:
- Industry income reveals, according to the people behind THE WUR, the amount of innovation produced by an Institution and is divided by the total number of members of teaching and research staff (2.5%).
- International outlook is associated with: i. the proportion of international academic staff on campus (2.5%), ii. the proportion of international students on campus (2.5%), and iii. the number of an Institution’s total research journal publications having at least one international co-author (2.5%).
- The score for the teaching pillar is based on the following indicators: i. the perceived prestige of an Institution in teaching; this indicator is the total number of votes obtained from a reputation survey; NB that the 2021 survey analysed data from 22,000 academic respondents worldwide (15%), ii. doctorates awarded to academic staff ratio (6%), iii. academic staff to student ratio (4.5%), iv. institutional income per staff (2.25%), and v. doctorates awarded to bachelor degrees awarded ratio (2.25%).
- The score for the research pillar is based on the following indicators: i. the perceived prestige of an Institution in teaching calculated as the total number of votes obtained from a reputation survey (18%), ii. research income per staff (6%), and iii. research productivity (6%).
- Research influence is examined by capturing the average number of times a University’s published work is cited by scholars globally (30%). Elsevier provides and normalizes the data.
THE WUR Rankings 2023 were based on the following data:
- The results of two annual academic reputation surveys carried out in November 2021 and March 2022. The process yielded survey responses from over 40,000 scholars globally.
- Bibliometric and other data collected from 121 million citations to 15.5 million journal articles, conference proceedings, books, book chapters, etc., published over the last five years. The data include 27,100 academic journals indexed by Elsevier’s Scopus database between 2017 and 2021. Citations to these publications made in the six years from 2017 to 2022 are also collected.
General information about THE WUR 2023
For the seventh consecutive year, the University of Oxford tops the ranking. The US is the most represented country overall, with 177 Institutions, 7 in the top 10 and 12 in the top 20. But with 7 American Universities dropping out of the top 100 in 5 years’ time (2018-22), Asia is catching up. Harvard University remains in 2nd place globally and first place nationwide.
Seven (7) Chinese Universities are in the top 100, compared with 6 last year and only 2 in the 2018 edition of THE WUR. Tsinghua University is China’s highest-ranking Institution, retaining its 16th place globally.
Japan is the most represented country in Asia, with 117 Universities, followed by China with 95 and India with 75 Universities. The University of Tokyo leads the Japanese Universities and ranks 39th globally.
In Europe (excluding the United Kingdom) ETH Zurich in Switzerland is the highest-ranking University raising from 15th last year to 11th. As for Germany, the country has 9 Universities in the top 100 and 22 in the top 200, a remarkable global performance indeed. Asia is the continent with the highest representation in the Ranking, with 669 Universities in the table, followed by Europe with 639.
Africa has improved its presence and participation by 36.6% compared to 2022, with 97 Institutions now in the table. With this performance, Africa saw the most considerable increase of all continents. It is noteworthy that 5 African countries enter the Ranking for the first time (Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe). The University of Cape Town leads the African Universities and ranks 160th globally.
The average score across Oceania exceeds, for the first time, that of North America. Australia has 10 Universities in the top 200, with the University of Melbourne ranking 1st nationally and 34th internationally. From Latin America and the Caribbean, a record 140 Universities are in the table, representing 12 different countries. Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia have many new entries, 5 for Mexico and Colombia and 4 for Brazil.
We should here underline that NKUA’s performance in Times Higher Education World University Rankings is a remarkable achievement, considering that 33% of the overall score in this Ranking results from surveys examining the perceived prestige of Institutions in teaching and research. Data indicates that reputation surveys generally give an advantage to world-famous Universities (Harvard University, Yale University, the University of Oxford, etc.) over Universities from smaller countries such as Greece. Reputation surveys seem to favour renowned foreign Universities, which are well established with the public and allocate large sums for advertising and promotion campaigns. That is something Greek Universities are not able to do.
We take this opportunity to congratulate and thank all teaching staff and researchers of our Institution. Their important high-quality work has earned our University international acclaim and recognition. We also wish to thank the Quality Assurance Unit of NKUA for its smooth and systematic cooperation with University Ranking Organizations; in providing them with all necessary data and data points, the Unit makes possible the participation of our University with ambitions in the tables of University Ranking Organizations.
Thanos Dimopoulos
Rector of NKUA
