Best Global Universities Ranking: UZH Climbs to 58th Place

The University of Zurich has jumped three places and is now 58th, again ranking among the best 100 universities worldwide.

In the latest U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities Ranking 2020, the University of Zurich has come in 58th (previous year: 61st). UZH thus ranks third among Swiss universities, behind ETH Zurich and EPFL Lausanne. UZH is Switzerland’s best-ranked comprehensive university, ahead of the University of Geneva. Among European universities, the University of Zurich ranks 17th, which is an improvement of one position.

2020 Indicator Ranking

This good result is mainly due to positive scores in the following indicators:

2019 Rank 2020 Rank Indicators
22 23

Regional research reputation
49 58

Percentage of total publications with international collaboration
59 58

Number of highly cited papers that are among the top 1 percent most cited in their respective field
59 62

Number of publications that are among the 10 percent most cited
66 64

Total citations
59 73

Percentage of total publications that are among the 10 percent most cited
82 85

Publications
89 91

Normalized citation impact
101 104

Global research reputation
83 108

Percentage of highly cited papers that are among the top 1 percent most cited in their respective field

Further indicators include books (127), conferences (569) and international collaboration (742).

Overall, UZH numbers among the 100 best universities worldwide in 8 of 13 indicators.

Subject Rankings 2020

The ranking also offers a comparison of various subject groups. In these global subject rankings, UZH now ranks among the best 100 universities worldwide in 18 out of 21 subject areas (2019: 13 out of 18).

2019 Rank 2020 Rank Subject area (Change to 2019)
18 17 Immunology (+1)
22 23 Biology and Biochemistry (-1)
- 25 Surgery (new)
29 28 Plant and Animal Science (+1)
29 30 Neuroscience and Behavior (-1)
45 43 Psychiatry/Psychology (+2)
58 43 Microbiology (+15)
  45 Oncology (new)
  47 Cardiac and Cardiovascular Systems (new)
53 47 Environment/Ecology (+6)
61 55 Economics and Business (+6)
56 61 Clinical Medicine (-5)
65 64 Geosciences (+1)
86 66 Social Sciences and Public Health (+20)
56 80 Molecular Biology and Genetics (-24)
- 84 Physics (neu)
- 86 Mathematics (neu)
96 98 Arts and Humanities (-2)

The U.S. News & World Report issues the most widely referenced university rankings in the United States, where they are still widely considered a major source of information for ambitious researchers and prospective students. The ranking again shows indicators rating an entire institution as well as in individual subject areas.

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