Sapienza University is the top Italian university and amongst the best worldwide. On August 15, 2019 the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, an independent research organisation, published its international Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) for the 1000 best global universities (formerly 500).

Sapienza ranked first amongst Italian universities, placing 153^rd worldwide (151-200 range). Overall, 46 Italian universities are included in the top 1000 positions on 1800 monitored universities in Italy and 17,000 worldwide.

ARWU indicators are extremely rigorous and include international awards and academic recognitions, research quality (published papers and quoted researchers) and professor productivity. 

In particular, rankings are based on 6 parameters: Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals of former students (10%) or university researchers (20%), number of researchers mentioned actively according to Clarivate Analytics (20%), publications on “Nature & Science” (20%), mentions of socio-technological publications (20%). These parameters are then correlated to academic staff to provide a pro capite productivity parameter (10%). The first 100 universities in the Shanghai Ranking are indicated by position and score, while all others are ranked in groups of 50-100 (position and score can be calculated by using parameters).

“Sapienza has not only been confirmed as the top Italian university, but it has advanced into the 151-200 range,” underlines Rector Eugenio Gaudio, “a position of excellence that should not be taken for granted for such a large and generalist university. And this is even more significant internationally as most of our competitors operate under different conditions. English-speaking universities, for example, have far greater funding than Italian universities. In any case, this achievement is the result of our university’s commitment and investments that aim to promote scientific research, merit and excellence and recruit top scientists and researchers in all sectors, a parameter that ARWU analyses carefully.”

The General ARWU Rankings follow the ARWU Rankings by Subject (published in June) addressing Natural Sciences, Life Sciences, Engineering, Medicine and Social Sciences and in which Sapienza ranked first nationally in a range of subjects. Sapienza placed amongst the top-50 universities worldwide in 4 areas: Automation & Control (21^st), Aerospace Engineering (20^th), Physics (28^th) and Instruments Science & Technology (37^th). Moreover, Mathematics, Civil Engineering, Nursing and Medical Technology ranked in the 51-75 range, while Engineering and Statistics placed in the 76-100 bracket.

Sapienza performed outstandingly in 2019 international rankings. In fact, in February, the QS Ranking buy Subjects (Quacquarelli Simonds) confirmed Sapienza as the number one university for Classics worldwide.