THE World Reputation Rankings 2023: eight French institutions in the Top 200

The World Reputation Rankings 2023 from the British review specialised in higher education are “based on the world’s largest invitation-only opinion survey of senior, published academics”. It asks scholars previously selected by THE to name “no more than 15 universities that they believe are the best for research and teaching in their field”. More precisely, they were asked to give “their point of view on the excellence of research and teaching in their disciplines and in institutions they know”. About 40,000 answers from 166 countries were analysed by the THE.


Four French institutions in the Top 100

Even though the US are, as usual in this ranking, the most present country, with only four institutions less than last year, Europe appears as one of the most present world area in the ranking. In total, universities from 31 countries worldwide were chosen to make this ranking of “world reputation” of universities.

For France, eight institutions were selected, with four in the Top 100 (including two in the Top 50) and four more in the Top 200.

They are:

• Université Paris-Saclay, in 44th position, a university registering good results in terms of quality of research, relations with the industrial world and internationalisation;
• Paris Sciences et Lettres (47th), selected based on the same criteria as Paris Saclay;
• Sorbonne University (ranked between the 51st and 60th), included for the quality of its research;
• Institut Polytechnique de Paris (ranked between the 71st and 80th), which obtained a very good score for its internationalisation.

Four additional universities in the Top 200

Four more institutions implemented all over France are also included in the ranking’s Top 200:

• Université de Toulouse (151st to 175th position);
• Université Grenoble Alpes (same position as Toulouse);
• Université Panthéon Sorbonne - Paris 1 (same position);
• Aix-Marseille Université (between the 176th and 200th position).

It’s worth noting that four universities have their best score in terms of internationalisation.