Würzburg among World’s Best Chemistry Departments
11/10/2009The “Academic Ranking of World Universities 2009” (“Shanghai Ranking”), a highly regarded research ranking of the 400 best universities worldwide, puts Würzburg’s chemistry department in second place among all German universities and in 37th place worldwide.
Within Germany, only the Technical University of Munich (12th place worldwide) is ranked better than the University of Würzburg, although the Universities of Heidelberg (45th place), Göttingen (50th place), Erlangen, Münster and Stuttgart and Mainz are still placed very well (between 45th and 101st place). The excellent performance of Würzburg’s chemistry is particularly noteworthy considering the clear advantage of larger departments (such as those at the Universities of Munich). Four out of five ranking criteria measure absolute values, as for example the total number of publications. However, Würzburg achieved the highest rating of all German universities in the only size-independent criterion: the percentage of publications in top journals.
Within Europe, Würzburg’s chemistry department placed 7th and leaves behind many large and well-known universities. Besides the Technical University of Munich only Cambridge, Oxford, London's Imperial College, the ETH Zurich and the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg are better placed in the ranking.
