The University of Groningen is the 66th best in the world, according to the 2022 Academic Ranking of World Universities compiled by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy. Harvard University in the US was crowned the best institute in the world, a position it has occupied every year since the ranking was first published in 2003.
The consultancy is an independent organization and assesses thousands of universities around the world every year, ranking the best one thousand. Each institution is given a score which is the result of four different criteria combined: quality of education (alumni winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals), quality of faculty (staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals; highly cited researchers), number of articles and papers published, and per capita academic performance.
The only Dutch institution able to best RUG was Utrecht University, currently listed at 54. The third best performing Dutch university of the year was Erasmus University Rotterdam, which secured the 87th spot in the ranking, while Leiden University, Radboud University Nijmegen, and the University of Amsterdam also made the top 150 list.
This year’s placement did not come as a surprise for the University of Groningen, which has been ranked consistently between 64th and 69th place since 2018. The best result was obtained in 2017 when RUG was number 59. Since 2003, the first year the Shanghai Ranking was published, the University of Groningen has always been part of the best 150 knowledge institutions in the world.
According to the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy website, RUG’s best-performing subjects and departments are Automation & Control (15th in the world), Business Administration (31st), Medical Technology (33rd), Education (36th), and Communication (36th).
