For the fourth consecutive year, Rome’s historic Sapienza University ranks first among Italian universities in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) issued by the independent organization Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, which has been evaluating leading tertiary education institutions every year since 2003.
ARWU considers the top 1,000 universities out of more than 2,500 surveyed and approximately 18,000 estimated worldwide. The 2025 ranking was published on 15 August. The evaluation parameters were, as always, six: the number of alumni and teachers/researchers as Nobel laureates & Fields Medalists; the number of highly cited researchers in subject categories according to Clarivate Analytics; papers published in Nature and Science; papers indexed in the most influential scientific and social journals, plus an additional indicator that relates the previous five parameters to academic staff, providing a sort of per capita productivity.
Sapienza is the first and only Italian university in the 101-150 range. The variety of disciplines and the excellent research activities were key factors in the good performance of the Roman public university, which achieved great results in international rankings in 2025. In the World University Rankings by the consulting and research company Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), it ranked 128th in the world, at the top of generalist universities, confirming its first place worldwide in “Classics & Ancient History” in the subject area rankings. In the 2025 ranking by the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), the university also confirmed its first place in Italy, a position it has held for the 14th consecutive year since the establishment of this university ranking.
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