University rankings

University rankings are used to compare the superiority of the world's universities. The University of Oulu ranks among the world's approximately 17,000 to 23,000 universities in the top 3% on average.

University rankings are a way to assess universities

Universities keep a close eye on the ranking lists, because they tend to be the first places where people look of information for evaluating a university as a potential partner or place to work or study, especially internationally. The higher the rank of a university, the more pull it has for high class operators.

Rankings are one way to compare universities. They measure most of all the profitability of research, because high level in research is valued and is also easy to measure. Different comparisons measure many other things as well: some of them track publications and their numbers or citations; some look at reputation, level of science and teaching, number of degrees, internationality, Nobel laureates, or the teacher-student ratio.

Oulu is in the top 3 procent

There are around 17,000 to 23,000 universities in the world depending on the method of calculation. University of Oulu is usually ranked in the top three per cent. Our strength is our publishing activity, such as citations and publications in Nature and Science. Among the fields of science, we rank well in clinical medicine, medicine, dentistry, life sciences, biology, information technology and data processing, electrical engineering, ecology and geography.

We take part in some five rankings every year. The most important of these are the “Shanghai list” ie. the ARWU university ranking published by the Jiao Tong University in Shanghai; Times Higher Education (THE) ranking; QS World University Rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds; and the CWTS ranking by Leiden University.

Placings in 2022

  • QS World University Rankings: 392
  • THE Times Higher Education World University Rankings: 301-350
  • ARWU Academic Ranking of World Universities (Shanghai): 401-500
  • CWTS Leiden Ranking: 542

More information about the rankings

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