Position International Rankings

Within the framework of the internationalization of higher education, competition to attract top foreign students and personnel is increasing between universities. A strong international profile is essential in order to be in with a chance. This is why there is great interest in international ranking lists. For more information on the Dutch position in international rankings, please refer to the website of the VSNU (Association of Universities in the Netherlands).

The Times World University Ranking

An influential ranking list is The Times Higher Education – QS World University Rankings, published by the British publisher TSL Education Ltd. The University of Groningen figures in the Top 150 – at number 138 in the world.

> THES: Ranking 2009

Academic Ranking of World Universities

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) is a global Top 500 published annually by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In 2009, the University of Groningen’s ranking confirmed again the strong position of its research. Globally, Groningen figures at a shared number 101. (Europe: joint 33th place).

> ARWU

Leiden Ranking

In 2009, the Leiden CWTS placed an updated version of ‘The Leiden Ranking’ on its website. The previous version contained a Top 100 of European universities; the 2008 Ranking includes both a European Top 100 and a World Top 250. Both rankings are based on four criteria. On the basis of the most important of these, The University of Groningen figures at number 30 in Europe and globally at number 127. Our relative citation impact turns out to be 1.27 times higher than the global average over the period 2000-2007.

> CWTS

CHE Excellence Ranking

According to the German Centre for Higher Education Development (CHE), the University of Groningen is a member of the so-called Excellence Group of the best universities in Europe. The Excellence Group has 56 members, which is 1.3 percent of the approximately 4,500 European institutions of higher education. Prospective Master’s and PhD students can use this ranking list, published in cooperation with Die Zeit, to compare universities with each other.

> CHE Excellence Ranking 2009

Essential Science Indicators (ESI) Citation Impact

Thomson Reuters’ ESI is a publicly available web application based on the well known citation database ISI Web of Science. It allows comparison of the number of publications and citations of the world’s 1% most cited universities and research institutes. The citations to publications ratio (CPP, i.e. relative citation impact) is generally considered to be the most objective indicator of research quality in the Natural, Life and Medical Sciences.

Summed over all 22 Fields that ESI distinguishes, the University of Groningen figures in the global Top-100 of most productive universities. When these large research universities are compared in terms of CPP, Groningen ranks 56th (number 16 in the European Top-20).

ESI also provides rankings per Field. These show that the University of Groningen belongs to the Top 4% of the world’s best universities in Chemistry and Materials Science. Our position in the global Top-10 in Materials Science was recently confirmed by the Times Higher Education (see THE). The University of Groningen belongs to the Top 15- 33% in Plant & Animal Science, Environment/Ecology, Microbiology and Physics.

>  The University of Groningen Ranking of Research Universities   

Webometrics

The Webometrics Ranking of World Universities is composed by the Spanish Centro Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and is based mostly on the number and distribution of academic publications on the internet. Globally, the University of Groningen figures at number 125, in Europe at number 29. The Webometrics Ranking confirms Groningen’s international position. 

> Webometrics Ranking

Taiwan Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities

Since 2007 the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT) has published a global Top 500 of universities, based on eight productivity and citation impact indicators borrowed from Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science. The University of Groningen takes an overall 103rd place in the 2009 ranking list, and is in the global Top 100 for three of the six disciplines: Clinical Medicine (87th), Natural Sciences  (94th) and Social Sciences  (99th).

> HEEACT  

Best Places to Work ranking list 

The University of Groningen is in fourth place on the international list of Best Places to Work in Academia 2009, published by the American journal The Scientist. The University owes its high place to the Rosalind Franklin Fellowship Programme, among other things.

> Find out why University of Groningen won the fourth place internationally

> Read the complete survey   

Global Universities Ranking

In 2009 an 'Independent Rating Agency' (RatER, Rating of Educational Resources), supported by the Academic Society of Russia, has published a new ranking. The ranking consists of a Top 430 out of more than 500 universities, based on an average of 20 indicators divided over 6 sections ('Educational activity, Research activity, Professional competence of the faculty, Financial resources, International activity, Reputation abroad'). The University of Groningen takes an overall 59th place.