Innovation District partner still among greatest

Quick Quiz. What is: Number one in Scandinavia? Number two in the EU? Number seven in Europe? Number 32 in the world? The university ranking institution Shanghai Ranking has published its 2024 results. Despite fierce global competition, Innovation District Copenhagen-partner University of Copenhagen holds on to its world-wide 32nd place.

Rich, famous or excellent. Some have it all

International ranking institutions rank universities by a number of various methods. Some by how well known and liked a university is. Some by how wealthy the university is or how successful its graduates become. Shanghai Ranking measures by research results. Not surprisingly, the top-ten on theirs, and every other ranking list, holds only the extraordinarily rich UK and USA Oxbridge and Ivy League universities.

Outperforming the rest of Scandinavia

The ranking’s first university in continental Europe is Switzerland’s ETH Zurich at 21st. The first in the EU is France’s Paris-Saclay at 12th. Denmark’s University of Copenhagen is the next EU-based university at 32nd place. The next Scandinavian universities are Sweden’s Karolinska Institute at 37th and Norway’s University of Oslo at 73rd.

Small size, big brains

32nd place may not seem like anything to brag about, but Denmark can lay claim to some brilliance. Her just 6 million inhabitants outperform large countries such as Germany (pop. 84 million) whose best university, University of Munich, comes in at 43rd and Italy (pop. 59 million) which has none in the top-100. Even well-known research powerhouse the Netherlands (pop. 18 million) does not chime in until 55th place with Utrecht University.

EU underrepresented

Denmark’s second largest city is also home to a top-100 university with Aarhus at 80th. Sweden has one more top 100 university with Upsala at 88. The best university in the non-Scandinavian Nordics is Finland’s University of Helsinki at 99. Al together the EU has 18 universities in the global top-100.