The oldest and most well-known university ranking is the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), published annually since 2003. Other famous rankings include the Times Higher Education World University Ranking, the QS World University Ranking, the National Taiwan University Ranking and US News Best Global Universities Ranking. All in all, there are around a dozen global rankings using different source material and methodologies.
University rankings differ from each other in terms of both source material and methodology. In addition to the generic rankings, there are several global specialised rankings. Among the most important of these is the THE Global University Employability ranking, which measures which universities the recruiters at top companies in different countries think are the best at preparing students for the workplace. In 2020, the University of Helsinki was ranked 49th in the world.
The Shanghai Ranking (ARWU)
Published by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University since 2003.
The Shanghai ranking is quite stable, and the positions of universities tend to change slowly. The University of Helsinki's strongest suit in the Shanghai ranking is research citations.
Several regional and field of science specific versions of the Shanghai ranking are also released every year.
The indicators and weights used to calculate the ranking are:
30 % Nobel and Fields awards
Points for awards in the Shanghai ranking are granted based on two indicators:
- 20% staff of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals
- 10% alumni of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals
The University of Helsinki still benefits from A.I. Virtanen’s Nobel prize in 1945 and Lars Ahlfors’ Fields Medal in 1936. Ahlfors’ points are being awarded to the University of Helsinki from 2017 onwards. Previously they were mistakenly allocated to Harvard.
The University of Helsinki also gains points for being the university where Bengt Holmström completed his Bachelor’s degree. Most of the points for his Nobel prize go to Harvard, since that is where he worked when he was awarded his Nobel prize.
The award indicators represent the universities' historical reputation and fame. They are also meant to compensate for the fact that the Shanghai ranking doesn't include a separate indicator for reputation, unlike the THE and QS rankings for instance.
20 % Research citations
The number of times other research refers to a publication indicates how significant it is. Citations for research publications from different universities are collected from the Clarivate Analytics (formerly Thomson Reuters) Web of Science and the Elsevier Scopus databases.
The Shanghai ranking uses the Web of Science database.
Research in languages other than English is underrepresented in these databases. Nevertheless, citations are the University of Helsinki’s strong suit in all of the rankings.
20 % Highly cited researchers
The top 1% of researchers in each field are listed in the Clarivate Analytics list of highly cited researchers. The top 1 % of researchers in 22 different fields makes the list.
The list of highly cited researchers is constantly in flux. If a researcher switches universities, the original university loses the points.
20 % Number of publications in Nature and Science
Nature and Science are among the world’s most famous scientific journals and authorities in the natural and medical sciences.
10 % All previous elements in relation to the number of academic staff
The intention of this criterion is to even out the impact of the size differences among the universities. This criterion also assumes that every teacher conducts research of the highest possible quality.
You can read more about the methodology on the Shanghai ranking website.
QS Ranking
Was previously a part of the Times Higher Education ranking, and split off in 2010. Published by the Quacquarelli Symonds company.
The indicators and weights used to calculate the ranking are:
50 % Reputation
In the reputation survey, employers and researchers from other universities are asked about their opinions on various universities.
Points for reputation in the QS ranking are granted based on two indicators:
- 40% reputation in a survey directed at researchers
- 10% reputation in a survey directed at employers
20 % Citations
The QS ranking uses the Scopus database for calculating citations. In 2015, the methodology and point allocation were changed in a way that was not beneficial for the University of Helsinki.
20 % Ratio of students to teachers
Even though the University of Helsinki has more students than the American top universities, the University of Helsinki tends to fare well in this criterion.
10 % internationalism
Points for internationalism in the QS ranking are granted based on two indicators:
- 5% ratio of international staff
- 5% ratio of international students
You can read more about the methodology on the QS ranking website.
THE ranking (Times Higher Education)
Published by Times Higher Education, a commercial magazine. Published in its current format since 2010.
The indicators and weights used to calculate the ranking are:
30 % Teaching
Points for teaching in the THE ranking are granted based on five sub-criteria:
- 15% Teaching reputation (reputation of the university's teaching calculated by the results of a survey to researchers)
- 6% Ratio of number of doctorates awarded to number of academic staff
- 4.5% Ratio of number of staff to number of students
- 2.25% Ratio of doctorates to bachelor's degrees
- 2.25% Institutional income
30 % Research
Points for research in the THE ranking are granted based on three sub-criteria:
- 18% Research reputation (reputation of the university's research calculated by the results of a survey to researchers)
- 6% Research income
- 6% Research productivity
30 % Research citations
In 2015, Times Higher Education switched to using Scopus as its ranking database, which had a favourable impact on the University of Helsinki’s ranking. Scopus features slightly more humanities and social sciences than the Web of Science database of Clarivate Analytics.
7,5 % internationalism
Points for internationalism in the THE ranking are granted based on three sub-criteria:
- 2.5% ratio of international students
- 2.5% ratio of international academic staff
- 2.5% number of international collaborative publications
2,5 % Research income from the private sector (industry income)
Research income gained from the private sector in relation to the number of academic staff. Universities specialising in technology, economics and medicine tend to fare better in this area than a general university such as the University of Helsinki.
You can read more about the methodology on the THE ranking website.
The Taiwan ranking
Published by the National Taiwan University since 2007.
The Taiwan ranking is based solely on bibliometric measurements of research, unlike Shanghai, THE and QS. A diverse selection of indicators/criteria is the strength of the Taiwan ranking, making it especially good for comparing research focused universities.
The strong suits of the University of Helsinki in the Taiwan ranking are citation numbers during the last 11 years and the H-index. Due to the diversity of indicators, the ranking is quite stable and universities tend to move up and down the list quite slowly.
The indicators and weights used to calculate the ranking are:
45 % Research citations
Points for research citations in the Taiwan ranking are granted for four indicators:
- 15% number of citations during the last 11 years
- 10% number of citations during the last 2 years
- 10% average number of citations in the last 11 years
- 10% H-index during the last 2 years
The H-index is a quantitative indicator that enables the simultaneous evaluation of a researcher's productivity in terms of publishing articles and the significance of his or her publications. The h-index is database-specific, which means it can differ from database to database.
25 % Number of research articles
Points for research articles in the Taiwan ranking are granted for two indicators:
- 15% number of research articles during the last year
- 10% number of research articles during the last 11 years
15 % Highly cited articles
Based on the InCites’ Essential Science Indicators database, which includes approximately 11,500 key journals from various fields of science. It highlights the most-cited 1% article for each year from the past 11 years
15 % Articles published in influential journals
Points are granted for the number of articles published in so called "high-impact journals" during the last year. The impact of the journals has been determined with the InCites’ Journal Citation Reports tool. It relates the number of citations for articles published in each journal to the total number of published articles. Journals which are in the top 5% of their field are considered to have high impact.
You can read more about the methodology on the Taiwan ranking website.
US News ranking
The US News Best Global Universities Ranking is the newest of important global rankings. It was first published in 2014.
The indicators and weights used to calculate the ranking are:
50 % Research citations
Points for research citations in the US News ranking are granted for six indicators:
- 12.5% Number of publications among the most cited ten per cent
- 10% Percentage of total publications among the most cited ten per cent
- 10% Normalised citation impact
- 7.5% Total citations (normalised)
- 5% Number of highly cited papers, i.e. those among the top 1 per cent most cited in their respective field
- Percentage of total publications that are among the top 1 percent most highly cited papers 5%
25 % Reputation
Points for reputation in the US News ranking are granted for two indicators:
- Global research reputation 12.5%
- Regional research reputation 12.5%
15 % Number of publications
- 10% Articles
- 2.5% Books
- 2.5% Conference publications
10 % Internationalisation
- 5 % ratio of international collaborative publications to the total number of publications at the university
- 5 % ratio of international collaborative publications to the global total number of international collaborative publications
You can read more about the methodology on the US News ranking website.
More about rankings
- Recipe for a ranking, an article in the Yliopisto magazine 08/2017.
- The contact person at the University of Helsinki in all ranking-related matters is Markku Javanainen.