UNC-Chapel Hill Ranks 29th in 2022 Academic Ranking of World Universities
September 1, 2022
UNC Global Affairs
The Old Well on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill continues to hold its position as 29th in the world and 20th in the United States among global universities, according to the 2022 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) released by the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy. The University also held onto its ranking of 7th amongst public U.S. universities.
Carolina has made steady forward progress in the ARWU ranking over the past few years ranking 33rd in 2019, 30th in 2020 and 29th in 2021. Harvard University and Stanford University continue to hold the top two spots respectively. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has moved into the top three this year above the University of Cambridge.
“The research and overall performance of our faculty and students continues to propel Carolina into the upper ranks of global universities, and I am pleased to see Carolina maintain strong positions across so many subject areas as well,” said Barbara Stephenson, vice provost for global affairs and chief global officer.
Global academic subject rankings were also released this summer, and UNC-Chapel Hill ranked in the top 20 for 9 academic subject areas for 2022. UNC-Chapel Hill continues to rank highly in the medical sciences fields and made gains specifically in education, nursing, biological sciences and biomedical engineering.
The rankings and subjects are:
- 2nd in dentistry and oral sciences
- 6th in nursing
- 10th in business administration
- 11th in public health
- 11th in pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences
- 11th in statistics
- 11th in education
- 14th in biological sciences
- 15th in biomedical engineering
For the overall global rankings, ARWU evaluates universities based on objective indicators, including the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, highly cited researchers, papers published in Nature and Science, papers indexed in major citation indices and other factors. ARWU first published university rankings in 2003 and now ranks more than 2,500 universities each year. The top 1,000 universities are published annually.
The scores are determined by the weighted indicators listed above, with the highest scoring university earning a score of 100. The other institutions are calculated as a percentage of the top score.
For a full list of rankings, visit shanghairanking.com.