Shanghai Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2022: 85 French institutions ranked in 47 disciplines

The Global Ranking of Academic Subjects is less famous and more recent than the Academic Ranking of World Univeristies, aka the Shanghai ranking. It was designed in 2017 by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy and is released every year in July, one month before the big ranking. More than 1,800 universities out of 5,000 from 96 countries and regions are ranked.

43 French institutions in the Top 100

“The Shanghai’s Ranking of Academic Subjects 2022 confirms the excellence of French higher education institutions”, said the French ministry of higher education to comment results that prove “the capacity of French institutions to stand out through scientific specialisations”.

In detail, this year, France secured the presence of 85 of its institutions ranked in 47 subject rankings (out of 54 in the full ranking), which represents a total of 664 mentions, i.e. 3,5% of occurrences in these rankings.

Looking at the Top 100 lists, there 43 French institutions ranked in at least one of the subject Top 100 (40 in 2021), thanks to 165 mentions in 36 disciplinary fields. Most represented institutions include:

• University of Paris Saclay (ranked in 27 disciplinary fields), present in most of the major global academic rankings and often in leading position;
• Sorbonne University (16 disciplinary fields);
• University of Grenoble Alpes (15 fields);
• Paris Sciences et Lettres (15 fields);
• University of Montpellier (11 fields).

These universities are also present in the subject Top 50 of the ranking with 15 additional French institutions: Paris Saclay (in 10 different disciplinary fields), Sorbonne University (9 fields), Paris Sciences et Lettres, University of Grenoble Alpes and the University of Montpellier, each ranked 6 times in the Tops 50.

To be noted that seven French institutions entered the ranking.

France, champion of mathematics

And France really shines in scientific disciplinary fields, and mathematics in particular. 36 French institutions are ranked in this disciplinary field, i.e. “7,2% of the total number of institutions in the ranking” according to the ministry. France “occupies two out of three leading positions: the 1st and 3rd position for the University of Paris Saclay and Sorbonne University respectively”.

Other disciplines also shine:

• in oceanography, French universities represent 7.5% of positions;
• in metallurgical engineering (6.5% of occurrences);
• in earth science and statistics (6%);
• in ecology, but also management (5.4%).

A ranking based on major fields and weighted criteria

To design its global ranking, Shanghai Ranking Consultancy listed universities from all over the world by subject or disciplinary field ranked in five major fields:

• natural sciences (earth sciences, mathematics, physics, chemistry, geography, ecology, oceanography);
• engineering (chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, electrical & electronic engineering, computer science & engineering, environmental science & engineering, transportation science & technology, civil engineering and more);
• life science (biological, human, agricultural, veterinary sciences);
• medical science (clinical medicine, public health, dentistry, medical technology, pharmacy);
• social sciences (economics, finance, statistics, management, administration, political sciences, law, psychology, and more).

The best world universities are ranked for each disciplinary ranking using six weighted criteria: results of research, quality of research, impact of research, international collaborations and international academic prizes.