The 2021 Shanghai Ranking: Université Paris-Saclay remains in the global top 20

On 15 August 2021, Shanghai Jiao Tong University published its Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). Université Paris-Saclay was ranked 13th globally and 1st in continental Europe, confirming the University’s position as a world-class research-intensive institution.

The University’s performance in this global ranking supports its excellent results in the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects, which was published earlier this year in June. For the second year in a row, Université Paris-Saclay was ranked 1st in the world for Mathematics. The University appeared in the top 50 of the world’s best universities for 11 subjects. It was ranked 9th in the world for Physics (1st in Europe), 12th for Agricultural Sciences, 22nd for Clinical Medicine, 29th for Telecommunication Engineering and also for Statistics, 30th for Biotechnology, 32nd for Automation & Control and 41st for Mechanical Engineering. Université Paris-Saclay also made excellent progress in other subjects, such as Pharmaceutical Sciences, ranking 30th globally, and Chemistry, coming 49th. Being ranked 13th globally today secures the University’s position internationally.

“Through its coverage, the ranking demonstrates the potential of French higher education and research to national and international students and the academic and socio-economic world, and shows that our University’s institutional model is successful. By bringing together the assets of the University’s entities and striving towards a common goal of working together and achieving collective success, this institutional model has proven its strength,” says Sylvie Retailleau, President of Université Paris-Saclay. “The ranking is not an end in itself and it does not change our objectives. However, it does offer a fresh perspective on French higher education. It is a way of attracting new talent, showcasing our academic teams and the socio-economic partners who work alongside us, and encouraging those who would like to contribute with us to the quality of higher education in France. This position in the global top 20 also strengthens our belief in the relevance of our collective institutional direction.”

Created in 2003, the Shanghai Ranking recognises the world’s leading higher education institutions, selected from more than 17,000 universities worldwide. The ranking is based on six criteria, including the number of Nobel Prize winners and Fields medallists, the number of Highly Cited Researchers and the number of articles published in the journals Nature and Science. Université Paris-Saclay has two Nobel Prize laureates and ten Fields medallists among its staff from the Orsay Faculty of Sciences and the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES). The University is also home to 33 Highly Cited Researchers, linked to the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), CentraleSupélec, the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the Faculty of Medicine at Kremlin-Bicêtre with Gustave Roussy, the Faculty of Pharmacy at Châtenay-Malabry, the Orsay Faculty of Sciences and the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE).