The 2023 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) has been released by Shanghai Ranking 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 2500 institutions were scrutinized, and the best 1000 universities in the world were published.

Harvard University tops the ranking list for the 21st year, followed by Stanford and MIT. Other Top 10 universities are Cambridge (4th), Berkeley (5th),Princeton (6th), Oxford (7th), Columbia (8th), Caltech (9th), and Chicago (10th).

In Continental Europe, Paris-Saclay University (15th) rises one position and remains the best, followed by ETH Zurich (20th). Among Asian universities, Tsinghua University (22nd) moves up four positions and holds the best place in Asia for the first time. The University of Melbourne (35th) has topped other universities in Oceania for thirteen consecutive years since 2011.

Two Chinese universities make their first appearance in ARWU Top 100, namely Central South University (95th) and Nanjing University (96th). There are 35 universities that enter into the Top 1000 for the first time.

Chinese Mainland universities dominate the ARWU list for the first time, with 191 universities ranked in the Top 1000, outnumbering 187 universities in the United States. However, the United States maintains an overwhelming advantage at the Top 100 level, it holds 38 Top 100 seats, far more than that in Mainland China (10), the United Kingdom (8), and Australia (6).

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 adopts 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, the number of Highly Cited Researchers and articles indexed in Science Citation Index – Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index based on data in the Web of Science, and per capita performance. More than 2500 universities are ranked by ARWU, and the best 1000 universities are published.

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.