Tilburg University in European Top 10 Shanghai ranking

In the Shanghai based Social Science 2009 watch, Tilburg University achieved a well-deserved leading position among European Universities. This influential institute Academic Ranking of the World Universities in Social Science 2009 (ARWU) uses the following indicators to evaluate the universities: highly cited researchers (consideration factor 25%), articles indexed in Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) (consideration factor 25%), Nobel Prize winners amongst staff members (consideration factor 15%), alumni (consideration factor 10%) and the percentage of articles published in the top 20% journals of each field (consideration factor 25%).

According to ARWU the leading European universities specialising in Social Sciences are the following (between brackets the world rank):

1. (16) University of Cambridge [UK]
2. (17) University of Oxford [UK]
3. (25) London School of Economics and Political Science [UK]
4-7. (52-75) University College London [UK]
4-7. (52-75) University of Amsterdam [NL]
4-7. (52-75) University of Copenhagen [DK]
4-7. (52-75) University of Warwick [UK]
8-18. (76-100) Tilburg University [NL]
8-18. (76-100) Erasmus University Rotterdam [NL]
8-18. (76-100) VU University Amsterdam [NL]
8-18. (76-100) Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Louvain) [B]
8-18. (76-100) London Business School [UK]
8-18. (76-100) University of Edinburgh [UK]
8-18. (76-100) University of Manchester [UK]
8-18. (76-100) University of Bristol [UK]
8-18. (76-100) University of East Anglia [UK]
8-18. (76-100) University of Nottingham [UK]
8-18. (76-100) University of Oslo [N]


The world ranking list is currently dominated by well-known American institutes like Harvard, Chicago, Stanford, Princeton, Yale, MIT and Columbia.

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) was first published in 2003 by the Centre for World-Class Universities and the Institute of Higher Education of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. The Shanghai-ranking now plays a big part in the decision making process of international students. A prominent place in the ARWU is sought after and very beneficial for the reputation of an institution and can therefore have a positive influence on the internationalisation of Tilburg University.