University of Copenhagen still No 8 in Europe

Posted 11 August 2008

The University of Copenhagen ranks 45 worldwide and 8 in Europe on the Academic ranking of World Universities published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

In 2007, the University of Copenhagen was listed as number 46 worldwide and number 8 in Europe, so this year’s placement is about status quo. This is owed to the fact that the criteria for the ranking largely remain the same as the previous year.

The University of Copenhagen is particularly ranked high within the category ”life sciences” which here covers several research areas at the Faculty of Life Sciences, the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Faculty of Science.

Quality assessment of research and education is an area that receives increasing attention in the both the public and at the universities. The different ranking-lists published each year represents different attempts to benchmark the universities against each other. The universities placement varies from ranking to ranking due to different methods of assessment.

In the present ranking, emphasis is put on publication of research articles and number of citations of the institutions’ researchers. Journals in Danish is not included in the survey, which means that research areas such as (Danish) law, theology, and some humanities are not represented accurately in the ranking, as many articles in these fields are published in Danish journals.

More than one thousand universities around the world are considered in the ranking.