Leiden ranking: France confirms its international scientific influence

Compared to its competitors, the Leiden Ranking ranks universities from all over the world according to the number of academic publications, in volume and according to the impact of quotes for each institution. In addition to the impact of publications and quotes, the Leiden Ranking uses other criteria to rank universities, including scientific, institutional and business collaborations.

Four French institutions among the 200 best universities worldwide and 13 in the Top 500

“The presence of 30 institutions in the ranking unveiled by the university of Leiden prove the acknowledgement at international level of the scientific potential of France”. As the French ministry of higher education and research writes to salute these results, the position reached by France for the impact of its publications ranks 13 institutions in the Top 500, four in the Top 200 and one in the Top 100. 

Specifically, Sorbonne Université is ranked 14th university in Europe and 97th in the world, and became the first French university for the impact of its publications. In addition, according to the ministry, thanks to the ranking of the University of Paris Saclay (112th), the University of Paris Cité (115th) and Aix-Marseille Université (194th), France “keeps four institutions in the 200 best universities in the world”. 

Further down in the ranking, nine additional French institutions are present between the 200th and 500th ranks:

• the University of Grenoble Alps;
• the Claude Bernard University (Lyon 1);
• the University of Montpellier;
• the University of Toulouse 3 – Paul Sabatier;
• the University of Paris Sciences et Lettres( PSL);
• the University of Strasbourg;
• the University of Bordeaux;
• the University of Lorraine;
• the University of Lille.

Ninth position in the world

Thanks to this good ranking, France, like last year, climbs up to the 9th global position as per its number of institutions ranked in the Top 500. France ranks after China, the USA, Germany, the UK, South Korea, Canada and Italy.

According to the ministry, this ranking results from “the implementation of a proactive policy for the acknowledgement of the scientific potential of French universities worldwide”. The “levers at the disposal of institutions” as part of the new research programming law (budget increase, creation of chair of junior professors, valuation of doctorate degrees) should lead to an “intensification of scientific production and improve attractiveness to international researchers”, according to the ministry.

Five disciplinary fields and four criteria

The Leiden Ranking focuses specifically on five disciplinary fields (medicine, physics, life and earth science, mathematics and social science and humanities) and uses four major criteria:

• the number of publications and their impact for a given institution;
• the number of collaborations (scientific, institutional and entrepreneurial collaborations);
• the open access aspect of scientific articles;
• the place of author women in published articles.

The Leiden website offers to use its search engine to cross disciplinary fields and criteria to filter results.