ShanghaiRanking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities 2025 Press Release

The 2025 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) is released today by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy. Since 2003, ARWU has been presenting the world's top universities annually based on transparent methodology and objective third-party data. It has been recognized as the precursor of global university rankings and the most trustworthy one. This year, more than 2,500 institutions were scrutinized, and the best 1,000 universities in the world are published.

Harvard University tops the ranking list for the 23^rd year, followed by Stanford and MIT. Other Top 10 universities are Cambridge (4^th), Berkeley (5^th), Oxford (6^th), Princeton (7^th), Columbia (8^th), Caltech (9^th), and Chicago (10^th).

In Continental Europe, Paris-Saclay University (13^th) remains the best, followed by ETH Zurich (22^nd). Among Asian universities, Tsinghua University (18^th) rises four positions and once again secures its status as the best in Asia. The University of Melbourne (38^th) tops of other universities in Oceania for fifteen consecutive years since 2011.

Two universities advance to the Top 100 in ARWU 2025, including City University of Hong Kong (99^th) from China Hong Kong and Stockholm University (100^th) from Sweden. There are 25 new entrants appearing on the Top 500 list, and 39 universities entering the Top 1000 for the first time.

Germany remains four universities ranked in the Top 100, namely the University of Munich (42^nd), Technical University of Munich (45^th), Heidelberg University (51^st) and University of Bonn (68^th). Germany now has 35 universities in the ARWU Top 500, and 51 universities in the Top 1000.

French universities show enhanced competitiveness in the latest league table, with 27 universities ranked in the Top 1000 and 18 of them in the Top 500. Among these, Paris-Saclay University (13^th), PSL University (34^th), Sorbonne University (43^th), and Université Paris Cité (60^th) keep four seats within the Top 100.

Chinese Mainland universities continue their strong presence on the ARWU list, with 222 universities ranked in the Top 1000, outnumbering the United States’s 183 universities. However, United States maintains a significant lead at the Top 100 level, holding 37 of Top 100 seats, a figure that greatly exceeds those of Mainland China (13) and the United Kingdom (8).

Number of Top Universities by Country

The complete list and detailed methodologies can be found at ShanghaiRanking’s website www.shanghairanking.com.

Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU): Starting from 2003, ARWU has been presenting the world's top universities annually based on a set of objective indicators and third-party data. ARWU has been recognized as the precursor of global university rankings and the most trustworthy league table. ARWU uses six objective indicators to rank world universities, including the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, the number of articles published in journals of Nature and Science, number of Highly Cited Researchers selected by Clarivate, number of articles indexed in Science Citation Index - Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index from the Web of Science, and per capita performance of a university. More than 2500 universities are ranked by ARWU and the best 1000 universities are published.

ShanghaiRanking Consultancy: ShanghaiRanking Consultancy is a fully independent organization dedicating to research on higher education intelligence and consultation. It has been the official publisher of the Academic Ranking of World Universities since 2009.

Website: http://www.shanghairanking.com/
Should you have any further questions, please contact us at pr@shanghairanking.com