Leiden ranking 2024: the scientific recognition of France

The Leiden ranking differs from other rankings, because it doesn’t measure education, but research. As the French ministry of higher education and research points out, the Leiden ranking “provides an approach that is complementary with other international rankings by bringing value, in additional the commitment of French university agents in terms of scientific publications, to the contribution of institutions in the field of open science, to collaborations between institutions, and to the rate of women among authors”.

Three Universities in the Top 200

The Leiden ranking 2024 ranks 1,506 institutions (up from 1,411 in 2023) using four critical criteria for institutions: the volume of their publications and their impact, their collaboration dynamics with other research entities, the level of openness of scientific articles and the share of women in authorship. These criteria apply to five disciplinary fields: medicine, physics, life and earth science, mathematics, social science and humanities.

In 2024, according to these various criteria, France has 32 higher education and research institutions ranked. They include three universities in the Top 200, including: 

• The University of Paris Cité, ranked 16th in Europe and 110th worldwide;
• Sorbonne University (124th worldwide, 22th in Europe);
• University of Paris-Saclay (164th worldwide, 35th in Europe).

Eleven French institutions in the Top 500

In addition to this prestigious leading trio, the ranking is a proof of “the scientific reputation of France abroad”, says the ministry. In detail, 11 universities located all over France, are present in the Top 500 of global institutions:

• University of Montpellier (203th worldwide, up 22 ranks);
• Aix Marseille University (209th);
• Grenoble-Alpes University (227th);
• Claude Bernard University Lyon I (279th);
• University of Toulouse 3 - Paul Sabatier (330th);
• PSL University (357th);
• University of Strasbourg (366th);
• University of Lorraine (371th);
• University of Lille (393th);
• University of Bordeaux (397th);
• University of Rennes (472th).

Then, are institutions in the Top 1000: Nantes University, University of Côte d’Azur (up 376 ranks!), University of Clermont Auvergne, University of Tours, University of Paris-Est Créteil and Polytechnic Institute of Paris. 

And from rank 1000 to 1500: University of Bretagne Occidentale (up 57 ranks), University of Rouen, University of Poitiers, University of Versailles Saint-Quentin en Yvelines, University of Caen, University of Angers, Sorbonne Paris-Nord University, University of Reims, University of Orléans, University of Picardie Jules Verne (for the first time in the ranking), Gustave Eiffel University and Polytechnic national Institute of Toulouse.