The Shanghai Ranking survey has placed Masaryk University among the top 500 universities in the world for the first time. Photo credit: MUNI.
Brno, 19 Aug (BD) – Masaryk University has improved its ranking by around 200 positions in the latest edition of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), placing among the world’s top 500 universities in the criteria monitored. Masaryk University first appeared in the ARWU, or Shanghai Ranking, in 2017 and according to the latest survey, ranks between 401st in the world and 500th. More than 2,500 institutions were evaluated in the current ARWU ranking, the top 1,000 were subsequently published.
“We are aware of the legacy of our first president, who said that the world stood and stands on work, not feelings,” said Martin Bareš, Rector of Masaryk University. “And that the world stands only on work, on small and constant work. For this reason, this achievement has given me overwhelming joy, because it is truly a significant change, which no other university in the Czech Republic has achieved this year. I would like to thank all the people at Masaryk University for this achievement. It is proof that working together, open discussion and emphasis on quality bring international recognition and visibility.”
The ARWU has been published by Shanghai Jiatong University since 2003 and is one of the three most-watched university rankings in the world. It focuses on universities’ performance in science and research. The assessment methods take into account six indicators to rank the world’s universities, including the number of articles published in the journals Nature and Science and the citation response of publications. In addition, it takes into account the number of scientists in the Highly Cited Researchers database, the number of Nobel Prize winners associated with a given institution, and the academic performance of a university compared to the number of employees.
Masaryk University’s performance improved in three indicators compared to previous rankings: the number of indexed publications in the Web of Science, where it increased its score to 31.5 points (from 30.5), performance per academic, which rose to 22.1 points (from 19.9), and boosting MUNI’s ranking most of all, its presence for the first time in the list of most cited researchers (6.8 points). For the number of publications in Nature and Science, the university achieved the same score as the previous year (7.3 points),
“In the long term, we strive for Masaryk University to have a strong position in research, experimental development and innovation,” said Šárka Pospíšilová, Vice-Chancellor for Research and Doctorates at Masaryk University. “There is a lot of work behind this, from building quality facilities, to standardised requirements for high-quality work, etc. It is a great honour to be among the 500 best universities in the world, this ranking gives our work additional meaning and motivation, as we want to contribute to solving global and local social challenges through research and the application of its results in the field of health, safety and quality of life.”
In addition to the main ARWU rankings, Masaryk University also performed well in specific fields, making the ranking in 11 out of 54 fields. The best results were obtained in Environmental Sciences and Engineering (101st-150th place), Agricultural Sciences (201st-300th place), Ecology (201st-300th place), Geography (201st-300th place) and Veterinary Sciences (201st-300th place).
