The University of Turku has been listed the world’s 369th best university in the 2021 NTU Ranking. In this year’s edition, the University of Turku was ranked the 2nd best university in Finland. The significance and popularity of NTU Ranking is increasing each year, and this year 816 universities across the world were listed in this prestigious ranking.
Since 2017, the National Taiwan University has published the NTU Ranking, often referred to as the “Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities”. Unlike many rankings out there, NTU Ranking is based solely on bibliometric measurements. It provides an overall ranking, rankings by six fields, and rankings by 27 selected subjects.
The 2021 performance measurements are composed of eight indicators (see below). These indicators together represent three different criteria of scientific paper performance: research productivity (25%), research impact (35%), and research excellence (40%). Due to these indicators and criteria, large universities have an advantage and thus can somewhat benefit from their size.
Research Productivity (25%):
- Number of articles in the last 11 years (2010-2020) (10%)
- Number of articles in the current year (2020) (15%)
Research Impact (35%):
- Number of citations in the last 11 years (2010-2020) (15%)
- Number of citations in the last 2 years (2019-2020) (10%)
- Average number of citations in the last 11 years (2010-2020) (10%)
Research Excellence (40%)
- h-index of the last 2 years (2019-2020) (10%)
- Number of highly cited papers (2010-2020) (15%)
- Number of articles in high-impact journals in the current year (2019-2020) (15%)
In 2021 NTU Ranking edition, the University of Turku was placed 369th and was the second best Finnish university right after the University of Helsinki (97th). The University's ranking has now remained steady for three years in a row (370th in 2020 and 368th in 2019), despite the fact that the NTU Ranking is expanding each year. The latest placement in the NTU ranking also indicates that the University of Turku is a strong, influential, and multidisciplinary research university.
Finnish universities were listed as follows in the 2021 NTU Ranking: University of Helsinki (97th), University of Turku (369th), Aalto University (373rd), University of Eastern Finland (412th), Tampere University (423rd), University of Oulu (437th), Lappeenranta University of Technology (651-700th), and University of Jyväskylä (651-700th).
In the field-specific ranking, the University of Turku was ranked in four out of six fields (same as last year). A notable increase in position is visible in the fields on Life Sciences (increase by 6 positions, position 249th in 2020) and Social Sciences (increase by 27 positions, position 244th in 2020). The position of Agriculture has remained the same in comparison to last year, while the position of Medicine has a small drop of 11 positions (position 258th in 2020).
Field-specific placings of the University of Turku in 2021 NTU Ranking:
- Agriculture (301-350th)
- Life Sciences (243rd)
- Medicine (269th)
- Social Sciences (217th)
In the subject-specific ranking, the University of Turku was ranked among best universities in the world in sixteen out of twenty-seven subjects. In comparison to last year's subject rankings, the University of Turku has significantly improved its ranking in numerous subjects. For example, the University of Turku has improved its ranking in Agricultural Sciences by roughly 22-71 positions (301-350th in 2020), Biology & Biochemistry by 58 positions (296th in 2020), Computer Science by approximately 100 positions (451-500th in 2020), Immunology by 2 positions (232nd in 2020), Neuroscience & Behavior by 15 positions (244th in 2020), Social Sciences, General by 9 positions (226th in 2020), and finally Space Science by 4 positions (235th in 2020). Interestingly, the University of Turku has also been particularly successful and appeared in such subject listings as Economics & Business, Environment/Ecology, and Mathematics, none of which it was listed in 2020. The remaining six subjects (Clinical Medicine, Microbiology, Molecular Biology & Genetics, Pharmacology & Toxicology, Plant & Animal Science, Psychiatry/Psychology), however, experienced a small decline in comparison to last year’s ranking.
Subject-specific placings of the University of Turku in 2021 NTU Ranking:
- Agricultural Sciences (279th)
- Biology & Biochemistry (238th)
- Computer Science (351-400th)
- Economics & Business (245th)
- Environment/Ecology (279th)
- Immunology (230th)
- Mathematics (451-500th)
- Clinical Medicine (258th)
- Microbiology (285th)
- Molecular Biology & Genetics (220th)
- Neuroscience & Behavior (229th)
- Pharmacology & Toxicology (401-450th)
- Plant & Animal Science (231st)
- Psychiatry/Psychology (179th)
- Social Sciences, General (217th)
- Space Science (231st)
