Outstanding Scores in New "Best Global Universities" Rankings

10 November 2014

Ruperto Carola ranks 2nd in Germany and 59th in the world

In the new “Best Global Universities” rankings, Heidelberg University placed 59th in the world and second in Germany behind the University of Munich (LMU). in Europe, Heidelberg ranks 12th. In addition to universities overall, selected subject areas are also ranked. Rupert Carola fared extremely well in that respect, too, placing among the top three in a total of eight academic disciplines in Germany. It even received three first-place rankings.

Heidelberg University is Germany’s best institution for space science (31st globally), neuroscience and behaviour (31st globally) and microbiology (50th globally). Heidelberg also did very well at the national level in biology and biochemistry, medicine, molecular biology and genetics as well as pharmacology/toxicology (each ranked 2nd) and physics (3rd).

A total of ten weighted indicators are used to calculate the ranking, with research achievements and reputation at the forefront. The evaluation criteria include the number of publications in the major scientific journals, total citations and the percentage of highly cited papers. Surveys of academics were also taken into account. The ranking also considers the number of doctorates awarded along with the number of doctorates awarded per academic staff member. A total of 750 universities were rated based on data from the Thomson Reuters corporation. The “Best Global Universities” list is published by the American media company U.S. News.