Institute for University Evaluation

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) is a global university ranking system that evaluates universities based on academic performance indicators such as the number of researchers and publications. Unlike the QS World University Rankings and the THE World University Rankings, this ranking excludes surveys of academic and employer reputation, and primarily reflects Nobel Prizes, Fields Medals, and academic research achievements.

Because subjective indicators such as surveys are not included, ARWU is considered relatively more objective compared to QS and THE. However, since it uses absolute numbers such as the total number of papers and researchers without adjusting for institutional size, it may be difficult to make fair comparisons between universities of different scales.

Unlike other global rankings such as QS and THE, which rely heavily on subjective indicators like reputation surveys, faculty interviews, and questionnaires, ARWU completely excludes such subjective metrics and evaluates universities solely on quantitative academic performance indicators.

Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals are weighted more heavily for recent awards. For example, awards from the 2010s are counted at 100%, those from the 2000s at 90%, and those from the 1920s at 10%.

Citation indicators are weighted according to the author's contribution. For example, the first author is counted as 100%, and the second author as 50%.

ARWU is one of the most internationally recognized university ranking systems, and is often referenced by governments and corporations. For example, the UK grants work visas to graduates from top universities, and graduates from universities ranked within the top 50 by at least two of the three major ranking agencies (QS, ARWU, THE) are eligible for this benefit. According to the UK government, eligible universities include those in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Japan, China, and Singapore.