EPFL ranked first in Europe in its field
The 2009 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, affirms EPFL’s top place among European Universities in the field of Engineering/Technology and Computer Sciences. Gaining three places from the 2008 rankings this year, the technical university in Lausanne, Switzerland ties Cambridge University as the 1st in Europe and 15th in the world in its field.
EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) has moved up from 18th place to 15th place worldwide and 1st place in Europe in the ARWU rankings in the field of Engineering/Technology and Computer Sciences. With a total score of 73.8 out of a hundred, EPFL shares its top European place with Cambridge University. Having also gained eight slots, from 50th to 42nd, in the THE general rankings that came out earlier this month as well as the exceptional performance in the prestigious ERC grants (top prize of 8 starting grants), EPFL has secured its place as a top European and international institution.
EPFL overtook two American universities, Purdue and Cornell, by improving its score in two out of three categories in its field. EPFL scored particularly well in the category of percentage of articles published in the top journals. For a small university such as EPFL – whose student body is over 7,000 for the first time this year – this category is advantageous since the weighting system, which counts the percentage of articles published and not the brut number, benefits smaller institutions that focus on quality over quantity. Yet it also did surprising well in the overall publications category, with a 9% increase from last year in total articles published according to the ARWU criteria.ARWU link: http://www.arwu.org/ARWUFIELD2009ENG.jsp