Three Israeli universities rise in prestigious global rankings

Three Israeli universities made it into the list of 2022’s top 100 academic institutions by the prestigious Shanghai Ranking of World Universities, published on August 15, and all improved their positions over the previous year.

The ranking is one of the world’s three best-known systems, alongside Quacquarelli Symonds and Times Higher Education, The Times of Israel reports.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem was ranked 77th globally, its best ranking since 2015 (when it placed 67th). It jumped up 13 places since 2021. The institution ranked 17th globally in mathematics and communication, and 30th in law.

The Technion–Israel Institute of Technology ranked 83rd, climbing 11 spots since 2021. It was its best score since 2018 when it came in at 77.

The Weizmann Institute of Science was also at 83rd, improving nine spots on 2021. It was the institution’s best score since the rankings were introduced in 2003.

Tel Aviv University came in at the 151-200 range (the system does not give individual rankings beyond 100). It was followed by Bar-Ilan University in the 301-400 range, the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the 401-500 bracket, and the University of Haifa ranked globally in the 501-600 range.

Prof. Asher Cohen, president of Hebrew University, hailed the results as “evidence of academic excellence” and praised researchers for their work in “multiple and diverse fields.”

The Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) is published annually and lists the world’s top 1,000 universities.

The ranking placed four US universities among the top five: Harvard and Stanford came in first and second, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and the University of California, Berkley. These universities took the top five spots in 2021, too.

The Technion, which has consistently ranked as a leading science institution globally over the past decade, ranked 22nd globally for aerospace engineering, dipping six spots since last year; 49th in automation and control, dipping three spots, and made it to the 75-51 bracket in chemistry and transportation science and technology.

University president Prof. Uri Sivan labelled the ranking “a significant and important achievement.”

“This is international recognition of the academic excellence and research of the Technion and I am very proud of our excellent staff,” he said.

The Shanghai Ranking, first published in 2003, grades academic institutions worldwide according to objective criteria, including the number of Nobel Prizes and other prestigious awards won by staff and alumni, the number of scholarly articles published in leading journals, and other factors relative to the size of the university.