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.