JMU ranked among world's top universities
09/12/2019The University of Würzburg features among the leading universities worldwide and in Germany according to the latest Shanghai Ranking and the Times Higher Education World University Ranking.
On 11 September 2019, the prestigious Times Higher Education World University Ranking (THE) released its latest results. They show that the University of Würzburg held its strong position compared to last year's standing: Of the 1,396 universities worldwide which were analysed, Würzburg ranks no. 163 (previous year: no. 159) in the overall ranking. On a German level, Würzburg has moved one place up from the year before and now ranks 18th.
Methodology of the THE Ranking
The THE Ranking compares the performance of universities in five areas: teaching, research, citations, international outlook and industry income. For this purpose, it uses various performance indicators such as the number of publications in journals, successful funding proposals or the relationship between teachers and students. Different weightings are applied to the individual results to deliver a final score.
Top result in citations
The University of Würzburg scored best in the "Citations" category again this year. This category indicates the number of times the University of Würzburg’s published work is cited by other scholars. It scored 87.3 out of 100 points in this domain which is another slight improvement compared to the previous year.
The results of the Shanghai Ranking
The results of the latest Shanghai Ranking had been released a few weeks previously. This prestigious ranking places the University of Würzburg among the top 300 universities worldwide and among the top 21 in Germany. Other Bavarian universities that feature among the German top league are the two Munich universities and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.
Ranking by subjects
The University of Würzburg again achieved very good results in the ranking by academic subjects in the 2019 Shanghai Ranking. Its biomedical research, for example, is excellently positioned in the "Biomedical Engineering" and "Medical Technology" categories, ranking among the top 100 sites worldwide.
Academic performance in biology, chemistry and psychology is also world-class, listing Würzburg as one of the best 150 universities worldwide. Physics and materials sciences at the University of Würzburg have made it into the top 200 globally.
Methodology of the Shanghai Ranking
The Center for World-Class Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University uses six parameters to evaluate the research performance of universities. This includes the number of staff winning Nobel Prizes and other significant awards, the number of papers published in top journals and the number of highly cited researchers. The ranking compares around 1,800 universities on this basis; the results of the top 1,000 universities are published each year.
Strong despite fierce competition
Alfred Forchel, the university president, is delighted about the good results in the two rankings and he emphasizes: "The strong performance of our university in these rankings again demonstrates our ability to provide academic excellence in research and teaching despite fierce competition from universities worldwide."
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