In the recently published Times Higher Education – QS World University Rankings , Aarhus University has moved up from position no. 114 to no. 81. Aarhus University is among the youngest universities in the top 100.

“It’s very positive that Aarhus University has moved up in the Times Higher Education (THE) rankings from a position as number 114 in 2007 to number 81 this year,” says Rector Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen, who is also pleased that Aarhus University is placed in the top 100 in both the THE – QS and the competing Shanghai rankings from August. The THE – QS and Shanghai are the most prestigious rankings of the approximately 17,000 universities in the world.

Aarhus University celebrated its 80th anniversary in September, and is one of the youngest universities in the coveted top 100 list.

“Although we’ve just celebrated our 80th anniversary, we’re still a very young university. In the Shanghai list, we’re the youngest European university in the top 100, while in the THE – QS list, we’re the third-youngest university in Europe. Not many people would have predicted this development back in 1928, when prominent opponents described the new university in Aarhus as a girls’ school in Jutland,” says the rector, and continues:

“Aarhus University is to belong to the elite among international universities, and it’s therefore been our clear aim to move up among the 100 best.

The weightings used in the THE – QS assessment of universities are based on six different criteria that are both subjective and objective. One significant reason behind Aarhus University’s advancement to no. 81 is that the university is well placed in four of the five main academic areas used as a starting point by THE – QS: Humanities, Social Sciences, Health Sciences and Science. The last area is Engineering Science, which was only recently established at Aarhus University and does not therefore rank as highly as the others. Finally, it appears that Aarhus University has advanced in the area of citations from scholarly publications.

We mustn’t let ourselves be dictated by different ranking systems and the criteria they use to assess the universities. However, regardless of what you feel about the ranking, a good position is very significant today when students and researchers need to choose another country in which to continue their careers. This is why we should be pleased that Denmark – as a small non-Anglo-Saxon country – has both the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University in the top 100 of the approximately 17,000 universities in the world,” says Rector Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen.

See the THE – QS list of the world’s 200 best universities

Criteria for the THE – QS ranking

Academic peer review of the best universities (40%)
Employer review of the best universities (10%)
Faculty student ratio (20%)
Citations per faculty (20%)
Proportion of international students (5%)
Proportion of international researchers (5%)

More information:

Rector Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen, tel. +458942 1141, mobile +45 2338 2126

Rectorate Publicity Manager Anders Correll, tel. +45 2899 2235