Two Polish universities among world’s top 500 in new international ranking

Two Polish universities have been rated as among the best 500 in the world in the new edition of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).

The University of Warsaw saw its position improve, moving into the band of institutions ranked between 301st and 400th (for universities below the top 100, exact positions are not given).

Kraków’s Jagiellonian University, however, moved in the opposition direction, falling below its Warsaw rival and dropping into the 401-500 band of rankings.

A further six Polish universities made the top 1,000, with their rankings as follows:

1. University of Warsaw (301-400)
2. Jagiellonian University (401-500)
3. AGH University of Science and Technology (701-800)
4. Adam Mickiewicz University (801-900)
5. Gdańsk University of Technology (801-900)
6. Warsaw University of Technology (801-900)
7. Medical University of Silesia (901-1000)
8. Medical University of Warsaw (901-1000)

Gdansk University of Technology is a new entry in the top 1,000. However, two other Polish institutions – Nicolaus Copernicus University and Wrocław University of Science and Technology – fell out of this year’s ranking, meaning Poland has one less university in the top 1,000 than last year.

ARWU, which is often referred to as the Shanghai Ranking, is one of the three major international university rankings, alongside the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the QS World University Ranking.

This year, Harvard University topped the ARWU, as it has every year since the ranking began in 2003. It was followed by Stanford University and the University of Cambridge.

British and American universities dominate the table, taking all but two of the top 20 spots (the exceptions being Paris-Sarclay University in 14th and ETH Zurich in 20th). The next highest EU institutions are the University of Copenhagen in 33rd and PSL University at 36th.

Very few universities from Central and Eastern Europe find themselves in the upper reaches of the list. The only ones above the University of Warsaw are Moscow State University in 93rd, Prague’s Charles University in the 201-300 bracket and Saint Petersburg State University in 301-400.

The University of Warsaw’s vice-rector, Maciek Duszczyk, celebrated his institution’s position, noting that it had improved on last year and now found itself among the top 2% of colleges in the world.

In the latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings, published in September, Poland’s top universities performed slightly worse, with both the Jagiellonian and University of Warsaw ranked in the 601-800 bracket.

Only two others – Adam Mickiewicz University and Gdańsk University of Technology – made the top 1,000. The University of Oxford topped the ranking, followed by the California Institute of Technology and the University of Cambridge.

The QS World University Ranking’s methodology puts the American trio of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford and Harvard in the top three spots respectively. It is also the most positive about Polish institutions.

The University of Warsaw (joint 321st) and the Jagiellonian University (joint 326th) both find themselves in QS’s current top 350. A further 13 Polish colleagues are in the top 1,000, which was published in June.

In Poland’s own league table, released last month, the Jagiellonian overtook the University of Warsaw to reach top place, with Warsaw University of Technology in third.

The Jagiellonian University was founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, making it the second oldest university in Central Europe – after Prague’s Charles University – and one of the twenty oldest in the world.

Its alumni include a number of prominent figures in Polish history, from astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus to the current president, Andrzej Duda, who also taught there in the law department. It currently has more than 40,000 students across 94 fields of study.

The University of Warsaw was founded in 1816 as a response to the partitioning of Poland between Russia, Prussia and Austria, which prevented Warsaw’s academic youth from studying in Kraków.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.