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NCU in Shanghai Ranking
Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń maintained its position among the leading academic centers and was listed in the Academic Ranking of World Universities as one of the thousand best universities in the world. The oldest world ranking has included seven Polish universities this year.
The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), also called the Shanghai Ranking, is regarded as a precursor of global ranking lists. It was first published in July 2003. From among 2,500 classified centers, a list of 1,000 best universities is published. Specific ranking positions are assigned exclusively to the world's top 100 universities, and the remaining ones are classified in groups of 50 or 100.
To prepare the ranking, six objective indexes are considered including a number of graduates and scientists who were awarded the Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, a number of articles published in Nature and Science as well as the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers list. The ARWU is prepared by the Institute of Higher Education at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU); hence the name Shanghai Ranking.
In 2026, the ARWU classifies seven best Polish universities. As in the previous year, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń is ranked in the 901–1,000 range. Similarly, in the same range, the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Warsaw University of Technology, and Wrocław University of Science and Technology can be found. The highest position is held by the University of Warsaw (401-500), followed by the Jagiellonian University (501-600), and the AGH University of Krakow (701-800).
The top three positions in the global ranking continue to be occupied by three American universities, i.e. Harvard University, Stanford University as well as Massachussets Institute of Technology. A total of 37 universities from the United States have been ranked.
It is noteworthy that in the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects published in November 2025 which is part of the Shanghai Ranking, the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń was classified in three disciplines, i.e. statistics, mathematics, and physics. The best result was achieved by statistics (Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science) which was ranked within the 201–300 range, and the NCU is the only Polish university ranked in this particular discipline. From the same Faculty, mathematics was ranked within the 401–500 range, and the NCU is one out of five Polish universities ranked in this category. Our university was also ranked among the best in physics, within the 401–500 range, alike mathematics. This result gave the discipline practiced at the Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Informatics the position within the 4-6 best universities in our country.
