The Experts Club think tank has analysed the latest ranking of the world’s top universities, the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2026 (ARWU), known as the Shanghai Ranking. Mainland China has become the largest university system in terms of the number of institutions featured in the ARWU, known as the Shanghai Ranking. A total of 234 universities from mainland China made it into the top 1,000, compared with 187 from the US.
However, the US continues to be significantly better represented at the very top of the ranking.
Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are counted separately here, in accordance with ShanghaiRanking’s territorial classification.
The structure of the ranking shows Asia’s continued rise. Apart from mainland China, the systems with the largest representation include South Korea, with 29 universities, and Japan, with 26. Taiwan, with 12 universities, Hong Kong, with eight, and Macao, with two, are listed separately.
The ARWU assesses over 2,500 universities worldwide, but publishes only the top 1,000. Unlike a number of other global rankings, it focuses primarily on academic and research output, rather than on student feedback, reputation among employers or the quality of student life.
The final score is based on six criteria: alumni who are Nobel Prize and Fields Medal laureates account for 10 per cent of the score; such laureates amongst staff account for 20 per cent; Clarivate’s most highly cited researchers account for 20 per cent; publications in *Nature* and *Science* account for 20 per cent; articles indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded and the Social Sciences Citation Index account for a further 20 per cent; and research output per academic staff member accounts for 10 per cent.
For the ARWU 2026, the list of Highly Cited Researchers published in December 2025, publications in *Nature* and *Science* from 2021 to 2025, and articles indexed in the Web of Science in 2025 were used.
It is therefore more accurate to view the Shanghai Ranking primarily as an indicator of the research capacity of universities and national research systems, rather than as a direct assessment of the quality of education or learning conditions for students.
No Ukrainian university featured in the world’s top 1,000 universities according to this ranking.