Shanghai Ranking: once again, UU is the best university in the Netherlands

Little has changed for Dutch universities in the Shanghai Ranking. Utrecht University is now one place lower than last year, at number 56, while Groningen has dropped from 69 to 73. The seven other Dutch universities in the top 200 have retained their positions.

Maastricht is no longer in the top 300, but in the group below, up to 400th place. TU Eindhoven, on the other hand, is gaining ground and has moved up to the same top 400. The University of Twente is falling behind and is no longer among the top 500 universities. Tilburg remains at the bottom of the list (701-800).

Value
The question is how much value people should place on these rankings. Critics argue that universities cannot be reduced to a single score, the criteria are arbitrary, and the rankings don't always measure what people want to know. For these reasons, Utrecht University no longer participates in any rankings for which universities must provide data themselves.

The Shanghai Ranking is not affected by this decision, as it is based on public data only. Among other things, the ranking's authors look at how many Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals alumni and staff have won. The number of publications in the renowned journals Nature and Science also counts.

Other rankings also consider factors such as reputation, internationalisation, and collaboration with the business community. However, how much weight is assigned to each criterion is, indeed, an arbitrary decision. The Leiden Ranking is an exception, as it allows users to choose which criteria to prioritise and thus create personalised lists. 

Trump
Harvard University has been at the top of the Shanghai list for years, and some people wonder what will happen now that the US President, Donald Trump, has launched an attack on this university. He is threatening to cut funding and tried to deport international Harvard students (in the end, a judge kept him from doing it).

The climate is rather hostile towards science in the United States, with the use of words such as “diversity” quickly leading to the loss of government funding. This can only have a negative effect on the position of American universities in international rankings. On the other hand, their position is so strong that they can take a hit. Eight American universities are in the top ten, alongside the British universities of Cambridge and Oxford. The first non-Anglo-Saxon university featured in the ranking is the Paris-Saclay University, at number 13. China has six universities in the top 50.

Budget cuts
It is also unclear what will happen to Dutch universities, given the government's budget cuts. The consequences of such policies (additional spending or cuts) will only become apparent in the longer term.