Universities, the 2025 rankings: Politecnico di Milano, Sapienza and Bologna among the best in Italy

The Centre for World-Class Universities (Cwcu) of the Shanghai Jiao Tong Graduate school of education also draws up an annual world ranking of the best universities. There are six selection criteria: the number of alumni and staff who have won Nobel Prizes and Fields medals, the number of researchers with a high number of citations selected by Clarivate, the number of articles published in scientific journals and those indexed in scientific citation indices, and the per capita performance of each university. Based on these factors, more than 200 universities are judged and a global top 100 is compiled.

In the 2024 ranking, the most recent available, Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Cambridge and Berkley are at the top. Once again, to find Italian universities one has to go below the top 100 positions. The relative ranking including only Italy sees in first place (among Italian universities) the La Sapienza University of Rome, followed by the Statale University of Milan and, in third place, that of Padua. In fourth and fifth place are, respectively, the University of Pisa and the Milan Polytechnic.

Another prestigious ranking is the Times Higher Education World University Ranking, which includes 1,907 universities in 108 countries and regions. The evaluation of each university is based on a new methodology that now includes 18 performance indicators in five distinct areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, business connection and international orientation.

The most recent ranking is for the year 2025 and does not differ much from the others already examined, at least as far as the top 10 best universities in the world are concerned. The top spots are in fact dominated, once again, by the US and UK, with Oxford, MIT and Harvard universities on the podium, in that order. Princeton, Cambridge and Stanford follow. To get out of the Anglo-Saxon dominance, one has to leave the top 10 and arrive at 11th position, with Zurich Eth, followed by China's Tsinghua University. The Italians? They are there, from position 146 onwards, and in this case the differences with the other rankings are appreciable. In first place among Italian universities, according to the Times Higher Education World ranking, there is in fact the University of Bologna, which surpasses the Normale di Pisa by 8 positions (146th place against 154th). Going down, we find the Sapienza di Roma, the Politecnico di Milano and the University of Padua.

Widely aligned is the US News' Best global universities ranking 2024-2025, now in its tenth edition. The study examines 2,250 universities on the basis of their global and local reputation, number of publications, books and conferences, total citations and their impact, international collaborations and other factors. The top three universities once again go to a US trio: Harvard, MIT and Stanford. The first international university is in 16th place and is China's Tsinghua University.

The partial ranking focused on Italy starts from 130th place and jumps downwards. In first place is the University of Bologna, tied with the University of Padua (130th place). In 140th place, second among Italians is the Sapienza of Rome, closely followed by the Statale of Milan (146th in the total ranking). Fourth and fifth are the Federico II of Naples and the Vita-Salute San Raffaele of Milan.