This represents the University's best ranking in the 14-year history of the Shanghai Ranking. The University also broke its ranking record last year.
A significant factor in the University of Helsinki’s success this year is that it has a larger number of highly cited researchers selected by Thomson Reuters, represented by the HiCi indicator.
Rector Jukka Kola is delighted by the University of Helsinki's steadily growing success in this international ranking.
“This is a wonderful way to start the new academic year. This is the result of the excellent work done by our skilful, committed staff. They are the ones who create our internationally competitive research, teaching and learning, and the reason for our success in rankings such as this one.”
Looking to the international arena
Jukka Kola points out that the international university community is intensely competitive. Many countries, including Sweden, Germany and certain prominent Asian countries, invest heavily in universities and research in general.
“It is very difficult to rise to the top in such an environment with our dwindling resources, particularly since cuts have been especially targeted at our country's top university. Cutting funds from quality research hinders our national welfare and hamstrings our economy.”
Kola worries that the recent budget cuts will later be reflected in ranking results. It may be difficult to keep even a single Finnish university in the international top 100.
“We intend to focus increasingly on cooperation and sharing duties both in Finland and with our international partners in particular, such as LERU universities and Peking University. Similarly, international funding will become increasingly important, both from EU sources and from international foundations, as the University of Helsinki’s national budget funding has been so dramatically cut.”
Third in the Nordics
Among Nordic universities, the University of Helsinki ranked third, preceded only by the University of Copenhagen (30th) and the Karolinska Institutet (44th). Last year, the University of Oslo and Uppsala University ranked higher than the University of Helsinki.
The University of Helsinki is the only Finnish university to be ranked among the top one hundred. The next closest is the University of Eastern Finland, which ranked in the 301–400 range. Aalto University, the University of Oulu and the University of Turku ranked in the 401–500 range.
The top-ranking university in the world is again Harvard University in the United States. Only five non-US universities ranked among the global top 20.