Four Italian universities feature in the world’s top 200 in ‘The’

A sign of optimism for Italian universities comes from the latest Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings. With four Italian universities among the world’s top 200 institutions and an academic system which, taken as a whole, ‘boasts the second-highest increase in average score in Europe’. In a global context where the UK and the US continue to dominate the top spots, with Harvard in the UK retaining first place for the eleventh consecutive year, ahead of the US institutions MIT, Princeton and Stanford, and another British university (Cambridge) in fifth place.

Turning our attention to developments at home, Bologna achieved the best result in ‘The’ rankings, climbing 19 places to reach 111th position (jointly with the University of Basel in Switzerland). Even more notable is the rise of Sapienza University of Rome, which has climbed 23 places to 147th (tied with the Scuola Superiore Normale in Pisa, which was 137th in the previous edition and has therefore dropped ten places, ed.).

Rounding off the quartet of Italian universities in the world’s top 200 is the Politecnico di Milano, which ranks 157th (jointly with the three British universities: Durham, Exeter and Nottingham) after having been in the 201–250 bracket in the 2026 edition.

Also worth noting is the 247th place achieved by Vita San Raffaele University, which was in the 251–300 bracket in the previous round, and has risen to fifth place worldwide in the ‘Research Quality’ indicator (which measures the quality and impact of scientific output), climbing two places compared with the 2026 World University Rankings.

Italia has a total of 58 universities in the rankings, four more than last year, confirming its position as the third most represented country in the European Union. In addition to the four universities in the top 200 (one more than last year), mentioned above, there are also 27 in the top 500 (compared with 25 in the 2026 edition).