QS World University Rankings 2027: Sapienza achieves its best result ever, ranking 111th in the world and first among Italian generalist universities

The 2027 edition of the QS World University Rankings, published on June 18, 2026, places Sapienza in first place amongst Italian generalist universities, 111th in the world and second overall in Italy. This is Sapienza best-ever result in this prestigious international ranking.
Sapienza has climbed 17 places compared with the previous edition of the rankings, confirming its upward trend: since 2017, it has climbed no fewer than 112 places, rising from 223rd to 111th place – a 50.2 per cent increase – thereby halving the gap to the world’s top-ranked institutions Sapienza achieved an overall score of 66.7, calculated on the basis of various indicators. In particular, Sapienza has retained its position as number one in Italy (65th in the world) for academic reputation, based on a survey of more than 120,000 international academics, for the internationalisation of its research (61st in the world) and for the career prospects of its graduates (122nd in the world). Sapienza has also seen a marked improvement in its ranking for the employer reputation indicator: having climbed 37 places compared with last year, Sapienza is now 124th in the world and second in Italy. 

The QS World University Rankings, compiled by the British agency Quacquarelli Symonds, are among the most prestigious international rankings. This year’s edition assessed over 8,800 universities to compile a list of the top 1,500, spread across 106 different countries.

Sapienza is Italy’s top university and the only one in the world’s top 150 in the 2026 CWUR ranking

Sapienza has retained its top spot in Italy in the rankings published by the Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR), which released the 2026 edition of its annual world rankings on June 1. Sapienza has held this position for the 15th consecutive year, ever since the rankings were first published in 2012. It is ranked 129th in the world.

The CWUR ranking considers 2,000 universities out of 21,291 surveyed and assesses the quality of education (25%), graduate employment (25%), teaching quality (10%) and research performance (40%) without relying on surveys or university-provided data. Specifically, ‘Education’ measures the number of alumni who have received prestigious academic awards relative to the size of the university; ‘Employability’ measures the number of graduates holding senior positions in large companies; ‘Faculty’ measures the number of staff who have won prestigious academic awards; and ‘Research’ measures research outcomes, high-quality publications, the number of articles appearing in highly influential journals, and the number of highly cited articles.

In summary, Sapienza’s results are as follows: 1st in Italy; 129th in the world out of 21,291 (125th out of 21,462 in 2025); 42nd in Europe; Overall Score 80.8.

QS by Subject 2026: Sapienza breaks records in Classics, Archaeology and History of Art

Sapienza is the world’s top university for Classics & Ancient History and ranks among the top ten for Archaeology and History of Art. This is the first time an Italian university has placed three subjects in the top ten of the QS World University Rankings by Subject, published on March 25. The 2026 edition of the report confirms, for the sixth consecutive year, Sapienza's top ranking in classical studies – the only such global ranking held by an Italian university – and recognises the humanities with 7th place overall for both art history and archaeology, with Archaeology rising from 11th to 7th place and History of Arts jumping from 18th to 7th.Sapienza has also improved in terms of the number of disciplines ranked in the world’s top 50, rising from four in 2025 to 6six in the 2026 rankings just released; in particular, Classics & Ancient History (1), Archaeology (7), History of Art (7) and Physics & Astronomy (38), whilst Modern Languages (42) and Pharmacy & Pharmacology (48) have entered the top 50. Among the top 100, Sapienza ranks first in Italy with 26 subjects. In terms of total entries in the ranking, it ranks second nationally with 46 subjects. The subject-specific ranking compiled by QS is divided into five broad subject areas, covering a total of 55 subjects. The ranking takes into account the following indicators: academic reputation and reputation among employers based on the opinions of recruiters worldwide; citations per paper; the use of the ‘H-Index’ to measure citation productivity and the impact of publications; and finally, the International Research Network (IRN) regarding co-authors of international research publications. The weighting of the indicators varies by individual subject and broad subject area. To compile the 2026 ranking, over 6,277 institutions were considered, of which 1,912 were included in the ranking.

Sapienza confirmed as Italy's top university for Arts and Humanities in THE by Subject ranking

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject, published on January 21, 2026, ranked Sapienza first in Italy for Arts and Humanities for the twelfth consecutive year. Sapienza also ranks 33rd in the world in the same discipline for the second consecutive year. Sapienza also climbed 14 places in the Law ranking, placing 61st worldwide. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject classify universities according to 11 disciplines: Arts and Humanities; Business and Economics; Medical and Health; Computer Science; Education Studies; Engineering; Law; Life Sciences; Physical Sciences; Psychology; and Social Sciences. Times Higher Education considers the following indicators when compiling the ranking: Teaching, Research Environment, Research Quality, Industry, International Outlook. On October 9, the Times Higher Education magazine published its 2026 World University Rankings. Sapienza University was ranked 170th worldwide.

Sapienza comes third in the QS European University Rankings 2026

Sapienza remains among the top 100 Italian universities in the special QS European university ranking, published on 28 January, placing 77th overall and third among Italian universities, as in previous years. Sapienza's overall score of 77.9 out of 100 is particularly high, reflecting its strong performance in several key areas: academic reputation (99.2), scientific productivity of its faculty (95.3), employment outcomes of its graduates (98.9), and sustainability (94.5).