Ghent University remains first Belgian university in Academic Ranking of World Universities (Shanghai Ranking)
(15-08-2023) Ghent University is the highest ranked Belgian university in the Academic Ranking of World Universities for the 14th year in a row. This year, Ghent University ranks 84rd in this list of over 2,500 research institutions worldwide.
In 2010, Ghent University was the first Belgian university to enter the top 100 of the so-called Shanghai Ranking (then in position 90) and has been the highest-ranking university in the country ever since.
As in previous years, Ghent University owes its position in this ranking mainly to its large number of scientific publications. The presence of scientists who are very often cited by others and the number of publications in the top journals Nature and Science also contribute to this.
The Academic Ranking of World Universities is led by Harvard University, Stanford University and MIT (all three in the US).
About the Shanghai Ranking
Since 2003, an Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) has been compiled annually. This year, this ranking compared more than 2,500 higher education institutions, of which the 1,000 best are published.
ARWU uses six objective indicators to rank world universities, including the number of scientists who are frequently cited and the number of articles published in Nature and Science journals.
On rankings
The position in a ranking strongly depends on the parameters chosen, the weight assigned to them, the statistical method used to process these data, and the reliability of the source data. Changing parameters or assigning a different weight to them, for example, can quickly undermine any ranking.
An important point of attention for this ranking is the use of indicators based on absolute numbers, which makes large institutions score better. In addition, the emphasis of this ranking is mainly on research parameters, which means that the other partial aspects of higher education institutions (education, economic and social impact, etc.) are not measured.