ShanghaiRanking Consultancy has released the highly-anticipated 2021 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).
Since 2003, ARWU has ranked universities globally “based on transparent methodology and objective third-party data.” ARWU ranks more than 1,800 universities each year and publishes a list of the top 1,000 institutions.
To arrive at its results, ARWU uses six objective indicators, including:
- The number of alumni and faculty awarded Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals
- The number of articles published in nature and science journals
- The number of highly cited researchers chosen by Clarivate Analytics
- The number of articles published in nature and science journals
- The number of Highly Cited Researchers and articles indexed in the Science Citation Index – Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index
- A university’s per capita performance
ApplyBoard Partner Institutions
ApplyBoard wants to congratulate our 68 partner universities across Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States who were included in the 2021 Academic Ranking of World Universities! We’re honoured to work with all of our partner institutions on our shared mission to educate the world.
Australia
The Australian National University
James Cook University
University of Wollongong
University of Tasmania
Edith Cowan University
Murdoch University
University of New England
University of Canberra
Bond University
Canada
University of Waterloo
University of Ottawa
Western University
University of Manitoba
University of Saskatchewan
Carleton University
University of Guelph
Memorial University of Newfoundland
University of Windsor
Ontario Tech University
Ryerson University
Lakehead University
United Kingdom
University of Liverpool
Lancaster University
The University of Dundee
The University of Reading
University of Surrey
Swansea University
University of Essex
University of Strathclyde
Brunel University London
Nottingham Trent University
Bournemouth University
Cranfield University
Royal Holloway, University of London
University of Greenwich
University of Stirling
United States
University of California, Irvine
Arizona State University
University of Arizona
University of Utah
Colorado State University
George Mason University
Oregon State University
University of Colorado – Denver
University of Connecticut
University of Delaware
University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Iowa
University of Kansas
University of South Florida
Iowa State University
University of Alabama – Birmingham
University of Central Florida
Washington State University
Florida International University
Northern Arizona University
Saint Louis University
University of New Mexico – Albuquerque
Auburn University
Kent State University
Louisiana State University
Thomas Jefferson University
University of Idaho
Baylor University
University of Montana – Missoula
Illinois Institute of Technology
Montana State University
University of Massachusetts Boston
Top 50 Universities for 2021
Here are the top 50 universities in the 2021 Academic Ranking of World Universities. Universities within the same rank range are listed alphabetically.
You can find the complete list of the top 1,000 universities and additional details on the methodologies ShanghaiConsultancy uses to rank them on ShanghaiRanking’s website.
| World Rank | Institution | Country/Region | National/Regional Rank |
| 1 | Harvard University | United States | 1 |
| 2 | Stanford University | United States | 2 |
| 3 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 1 |
| 4 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | United States | 3 |
| 5 | University of California, Berkeley | United States | 4 |
| 6 | Princeton University | United States | 5 |
| 7 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 2 |
| 8 | Columbia University | United States | 6 |
| 9 | California Institute of Technology | United States | 7 |
| 10 | University of Chicago | United States | 8 |
| 11 | Yale University | United States | 9 |
| 12 | Cornell University | United States | 10 |
| 13 | Paris-Saclay University | France | 1 |
| 14 | University of California, Los Angeles | United States | 11 |
| 15 | University of Pennsylvania | United States | 12 |
| 16 | Johns Hopkins University | United States | 13 |
| 17 | University College London | United Kingdom | 3 |
| 18 | University of California, San Diego | United States | 14 |
| 19 | University of Washington | United States | 15 |
| 20 | University of California, San Francisco | United States | 16 |
| 21 | ETH Zurich | Switzerland | 1 |
| 22 | University of Toronto | Canada | 1 |
| 23 | Washington University in St. Louis | United States | 17 |
| 24 | The University of Tokyo | Japan | 1 |
| 25 | Imperial College London | United Kingdom | 4 |
| 26 | University of Michigan – Ann Arbor | United States | 18 |
| 27 | New York University | United States | 19 |
| 28 | Tsinghua University | China | 1 |
| 29 | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | United States | 20 |
| 30 | University of Copenhagen | Denmark | 1 |
| 31 | University of Wisconsin – Madison | United States | 21 |
| 32 | Duke University | United States | 22 |
| 33 | The University of Melbourne | Australia | 1 |
| 34 | Northwestern University | United States | 23 |
| 35 | Sorbonne University | France | 2 |
| 35 | The University of Manchester | United Kingdom | 5 |
| 37 | Kyoto University | Japan | 2 |
| 38 | PSL University | France | 3 |
| 38 | The University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom | 6 |
| 40 | University of Minnesota, Twin Cities | United States | 24 |
| 41 | The University of Texas at Austin | United States | 25 |
| 42 | Karolinska Institute | Sweden | 1 |
| 42 | Rockefeller University | United States | 26 |
| 42 | University of British Columbia | Canada | 2 |
| 45 | Peking University | China | 2 |
| 46 | University of Colorado at Boulder | United States | 27 |
| 47 | King’s College London | United Kingdom | 7 |
| 48 | The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas | United States | 28 |
| 48 | University of Munich | Germany | 1 |
| 50 | Utrecht University | Netherlands | 1 |
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