Weizmann, Technion jump in Shanghai Rankings, Hebrew U drops
Weizmann, Technion jump in Shanghai Rankings, Hebrew U drops
Weizmann and the Technion, who shared the 83rd place last year, climbed to 67th and 78th place, respectively. The Hebrew University dropped from 77th place to 85th and from the first place in Israel to third
Israel's two technological universities registered impressive improvement in the Shanghai Ranking, which is considered the foremost index in the world for ranking institutions of higher education. The Weizmann Institute and the Technion, which last year tied for 83rd place in the ranking, rose this year to the 67th and 78th places, respectively. In contrast, the Hebrew University, which in recent years was the leader among Israeli institutions, dropped from 77th place to 85th place, and to third place in Israel.
Israel is ranked 11th in the world with three universities among the top 100, five among the top 500 and seven among the first 1000. United States is in first place, while China is in second place. Israel is ahead of Japan (12) and Singapore (15), and is second in Asia after China.
Regarding the ranking of the other Israeli universities, the news is not as good. Tel Aviv University, ranked fourth in Israel, has fallen from being in the 151-200 group to ranking between 201-300 (after the 100th place there is no detailed ranking). Ben-Gurion University, which is the sixth in the country, dropped from the 500s to the 600s. Haifa University, which is in the 700s (the rest are not ranked), dropped from the 600s. Bar-Ilan University, which is fifth in Israel, remained in the same section as before between places 501-600.
It seems that the rise of the Israeli institutions in the index is due to the fact that they began to act in order to adapt themselves to the ranking in areas such as publications in important magazines and international collaborations. Israel's achievement stands out against the background of the crisis in which the Israeli academy finds itself following the judicial reform, when institutions of higher education find it difficult to entice the return of Israeli lecturers who decide to stay abroad and to recruit new foreign lecturers.
The Technion explains its rise in ranking by strengthening its collaborations in interdisciplinary research and encouraging research ties with industry. Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan said: "The presence of three Israeli academic institutions within the world's top 100 universities is a testament to the excellence of Israeli academia and science. This achievement fills us with pride."
All the top ten institutions in the world ranking kept their place: in the first three places are Harvard University, Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In the top ten are eight American and two British institutions (Cambridge and Oxford).
The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), responsible for publishing the Shanghai Ranking annually since 2003, evaluates universities based on the number of Nobel Laureates, Fields Medalists, Highly Cited Researchers, and publications in journals like Nature and Science. Universities with a substantial number of papers indexed by Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) are also considered. In total, over 2500 universities are evaluated, and the top 1000 are published in the ranking.
