SHANGHAI (August 15, 2018) Harvard University topped the ranking list for the 16^th year while Stanford University and University of Cambridge remained to be the No. 2 and No. 3 respectively in the 2018 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) released by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy.

Other Top 10 universities are MIT, Berkeley, Princeton, Oxford, Columbia, Caltech and Chicago. In Continental Europe, ETH Zurich (19^th) continues to be the best ranked university, and University of Copenhagen (29^th) takes the second place. Sorbonne University (36^th) – a newly created university from a merger between Pierre and Marie Curie University and Paris-Sorbonne University is the third best in this region. The University of Tokyo (22^th) and Kyoto University (35^th) keep their leading positions in Asia. Tsinghua University (45^th) is ranked the third among Asian universities. The University of Melbourne (38^th) tops other universities in Oceania.

No Pakistani University has qualified in top 500 varsities, however, four Pakistani universities have been included in top 700 universities. These include COMSATS University Islamabad, Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad, Punjab University Lahore and Agha Khan University Karachi.

Since 2003, ARWU has been presenting the world Top 500 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, universities ranked between 501 and 1000 are also published as ARWU World Top 500 Candidates.

Zhejiang University (67^th) and Nanyang Technological University (96^th) make their first ever appearance in the Top 100. Northwestern Polytechnical University and other 10 universities enter into the Top 500 list for the first time.

Universities from the United States dominates this year’s Top 500 list with 8 universities among the Top 10, 46 among the Top 100 and 139 among the Top 500. China has 62 universities ranked in Top 500, among which 3 are in Top 100. United Kingdom has 39 Top 500 universities, and 8 of them are also listed in Top 100.

Last year, in addition to the Top 500 list, the universities ranked in the range of 501 – 800 were also published as ARWU World Top 500 Candidates. This year the list of World Top 500 Candidates is extended to cover all universities ranked in Top 1000. China and the United States are the two biggest host of Top 500 Candidates, China has 84 universities recognized as candidates and United States has 78.

Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU): Starting from 2003, ARWU has been presenting the world Top 500 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 Highly Cited Researchers, the number of articles published in journals of Nature and Science, the number of articles indexed in Science Citation Index – Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index, and per capita performance. About 1500 universities are actually ranked by ARWU every year and the best 500 universities are published. In 2018, those universities ranked between 501 and 1000 in the world are also published.

ShanghaiRanking Consultancy: 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.