Austria's Universities with Successful Placements in International University Rankings
The current "Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities" continues to show a dominance of U.S. universities, 15 of which occupy the top 20 positions in the ranking. The University of Vienna (Uni Wien) is Austria's best-ranked university and is within the top 150, maintaining its position compared to the previous year. In total, five Austrian universities made it into the top 500, compared to six in the previous year.
The University of Vienna is now the only Austrian university in the top 150. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons, Bwag, CC BY-SA 4.0
The current ranking, which was published recently, honors Harvard University as the world's best university for the 21st time in a row. It is followed by Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/MIT, all from the USA. The University of Cambridge (UK) takes fourth place and is the best European university.
The University of Vienna improved its ranking this year in the 101-150 group, while the Medical University of Vienna (201-300), the University of Innsbruck and the Vienna University of Technology (TU) (both 301-400), and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (Boku; 401-500) maintained their rankings.
However, there were some changes as well. Innsbruck Medical University (501-600) no longer made the top 500, nor did the University of Graz (501-600), but it moved up a group. The Medical University of Graz (601-700) slipped into a lower ranking group. Graz University of Technology, the University of Linz and the University of Veterinary Medicine again held their own in the 801-900 ranking group, as did the University of Salzburg (2022: 701-800).
In total, twelve Austrian universities are represented among the top 1,000 worldwide. The University of Klagenfurt, still in the 901-1,000 ranking group last year, is not included in the list this year. The University of Leoben and the University of Economics are also not represented.
The Shanghai ranking is characterized by its strong research orientation and mainly uses publicly available databases. Forty percent of the evaluation is based on the quality of scientists (measured by Nobel Prize and Fields Medal winners and citations) and research output (based on publications in "Science" and "Nature" and citations). Another ten percent of the evaluation relates to the quality of training and productivity per researcher.