Shanghai ranking 2024: a source of pride for France

“This year’s ranking is excellent for us! Of course, a ranking is not everything. But it is a source of pride. The confirmation of a strategy and a diversity of models across our country”, said the French Minister for Higher Education in a message on X to comment the results of the ranking first created in 2003 by China’s Jiao Tong University, and carried out each year. The ranking, which identifies the “1,000 best universities in the world” out of 2,500 institutions thoroughly examined, is based on criteria that focus primarily on research, such as the number of alumni and research professors who have won Nobel prizes and Fields medals, the number of researchers most quoted in their discipline, the number of scientific publications, and the academic reputation of professors.

France in 3rd place worldwide

Indeed, the United States and, to a lesser extent, the United Kingdom continue to lead the ranking. But, for the first time, an institution located in a major continental European country has made it into the Top 20[1], and it’s a French university! Paris-Saclay University, which has been in the Top 20 since 2020, is now ranked 12th in the world for the first time (up three places from 2023). This is the best position recorded by a French institution since the ranking was created. As the French Ministry of Higher Education points out, this position “confirms France in its 3rd position worldwide for the fifth year running, based on the number of institutions in the Top 20”.

Like Paris-Saclay, three additional universities are ranked in the Top 100, and all three have made significant progress since 2023. They are University of Paris Sciences et Lettres (33rd, up 8 places), Sorbonne University (41st, up 5 places) and Paris Cité University (60th, up 9 places). 

18 universities in the Top 500

As the authors of the ranking themselves acknowledge, “French universities have become even more competitive in the latest ranking, with 25 universities ranked in the Top 1000 and 18 in the Top 500”. 

In addition to the Top 100 and the four universities that feature in it, France has 14 other institutions - almost three quarters of the French universities ranked - in the top half of the ranking (Top 500). 

In addition to the top four, all based in Paris and the Ile-de-France region, the 14 other institutions that make up the Top 500 are spread throughout France. They include:

• Aix-Marseille University (Top 150, +50);
• University of Grenoble Alpes (Top 150);
• University of Strasbourg (Top 150, +50);
• University of Montpellier (rank 151-200);
• Claude Bernard - Lyon 1 University (rank 201-300);
• University of Bordeaux (rank 201-300);
• University of Lorraine (rank 201-300);
• Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon (rank 301-400);
• Institut polytechnique de Paris (rank 301-400) ;
• Toulouse 3 - Paul Sabatier University (rank 301-400);
• University of Toulouse 1 - Capitole (rank 301-400);
• University of Lille (rank 301-400);
• University of Côte d’Azur (rank 401-500);
• University of Rennes (rank 401-500);

Further down the ranking, 7 additional institutions stand out: 

• University of Nantes (rank 501-600, +200 places, sharpest jump rise in the ranking);
• University of Clermont-Auvergne (rank 601-700);
• University of Paris-Est Créteil (rank 701-800, +100);
• INSA Toulouse;
• University of Bourgogne (rank 801-900);
• University of Savoie Mont-Blanc (rank 801-900);
• University of Poitiers (rank 901-100).

According to the French Ministry of Higher Education, “by recognising institutions across the country, the Shanghai ranking highlights the diversity of the French academic landscape and its different models”.

Greater international visibility

Paying tribute to the 25 French institutions ranked and thanking “all the researchers and all the teams” who made this ranking possible, the Minister for Higher Education and Research is proud that 12 of the institutions ranked were part of the 16 “resulting from the merger policy”. In this sense, she continued, the Shanghai ranking confirms “the success of the new models of French universities by giving them international visibility”. 

The same goes for the Presidency of the French Republic stated on X that the Shanghai ranking 2024 stands for “recognition of French academic players on the international stage”. For the President, “it is confirmation of the success of the new models for French universities and of the impact of the funding provided under the research programming law and the France 2030 plan, which are helping to transform institutions, enhance their educational offering and define their scientific signature”. He concluded: “This is France! We can be proud”.

[1] With Switzerland out of the Top 20, France becomes the only continental European nation to feature in the Top 20, in addition to the United States and the United Kingdom.