Israeli Universities Continue to Fall in Global Rankings

Israel’s universities are continuously losing ground in global rankings. Of the nine Israeli institutions that made it into The Center for World University Rankings’ (CWUR) top 2000 universities list published Monday, four universities were ranked lower than 2018’s ranking, with Tel Aviv University getting kicked out of the top 100 list after gradually dropping from its 2012 peak, when it was ranked 56th.

The Center for World University Rankings, headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, has published its rankings since 2012. The CWUR rating is based on seven parameters: quality of education, alumni employment, quality of faculty, research output, publications, influence measured by the number of research papers appearing in “highly-influential journals,” and the number of citations. Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science snagged the 58th spot on the list, making it Israel’s highest-ranked institution. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem was close behind at 62nd. Haifa-based Technion Israel Institute of Technology was ranked at 111th; Tel Aviv University at 143rd; Ben-Gurion University of the Negev at 335th; Bar-Ilan University at 490th; the University of Haifa at 622nd; Ariel University, though located outside of internationally recognized Israeli borders, was ranked at 1644th place; and the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya was the last Israeli academic institute to make the cut, coming in at 1800th.

Last year, the Weizmann Institute was ranked 45th, the Hebrew University at 61st, and Tel Aviv University at 85th. The Technion was ranked 147th last year, Ben Gurion ranked 394th, Bar Ilan ranked 492nd and Haifa was ranked 620th last year.

Topping the global list for the eighth consecutive year was Harvard University. Massachusetts Institute of Technology surpassed Stanford University as the second-highest-ranked institution, while the University of Cambridge snagged the fourth spot and the University of Oxford ranked fifth.