Nine French institutions ranked “most international universities”

According to THE, “universities, by their nature, are global institutions, [...] home to communities of students and scholars from all over the world”. But despite this objective observation, THE still defined this “worldness” and ranked institutions using several metrics. There are four of them: the proportion of international staff, the proportion of international students, the share of international co-authors in research publications, and the institution’s “global reputation”. This last metric is collected after an annual survey in which THE “asks leading scholars to name the world’s best universities for teaching and research in their field”.

Four French institutions in the Top 100

The international ranking of most international universities thus includes a total 203 institutions. Out of 203 institutions, 65 are European and 9 of them are French.

And the Top 100 of the ranking includes four French institutions:

• Institut polytechnique de Paris (44th global rank, 1st French institution), with 8,500 students including 35% international students on the campus located close to Paris. According to THE, Institut Polytechnique de Paris is a higher education institution that “brings together 5 Top-Tier French Engineering Graduate Schools / Grandes Ecoles”;
• Sorbonne Université (77th), a public university in Paris which was officially established in 2018 following the merger of two universities. However, THE notes that “the institution can trace its history back to the 13th century and the University of Paris, which had a Collège de Sorbonne which was founded in 1257 by Robert de Sorbon”;
• PSL - Paris Sciences et Lettres (84th), a “human-scale university” according to THE with 17,000 students and 2,900 researchers. THE notes that with 28 Nobel laureates and 10 Fields medal winners, it “represents circa 10% of French research”;
• Université Paris-Saclay (91st), has a “history that dates back to 1150 when the University of Paris was established”.        In 2019, it became Université Paris Saclay to bring together “nine higher education institutions and a business cluster to a research-intensive academic campus”.

Five institutions in the Top 200

Beyond the Top 100, France has five additional institutions present in all places in France:

• University of Toulouse (101th). The University of Toulouse was formed in 1229 and is today “a federal university bringing together 100,000 students spread across its varied 14 institutions”;
• Aix-Marseille University (102th), “a public research university in Provence that can trace its origins back to 1409” that is now according to THE “the largest university in the French-speaking world in terms of student numbers and also endowment, which is currently €750 million”;
• Université Paris Cité (113th), is located in the heart of Paris “with over 14 campuses and research facilities”, and THE notes that “it is among the most prestigious French research-intensive universities, recognised internationally for its excellence in research”;
• Université Grenoble Alpes (117th), was formed in 1339, and currently includes 59,000 students at the university with 10,000 coming from outside of France representing 160 nationalities;
• Ecole normale supérieur de Lyon (130th), was founded in 1880 and is “one of France’s four Écoles Normales Supérieures, [and] a premier institution of research”.