THE Young University Ranking 2023: two French institutions in the Top 10

The THE (Times Higher Education) “Young Universities” ranking analyses and ranks the best universities in the world “aged 50 or less”. This ranking, based on the same 13 performance indicators as the flagship THE World University Ranking, adjusts and weights the results while retaining the institutions’ main missions as criteria: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. 

Five French institutions in the Top 20

The ranking 2023 has examined the results of 605 universities versus 539 in 2022. And the THE says that “France is the most represented country in the Top 20, with five institutions”. They are:

• Université Paris Sciences et Lettres  (PSL), ranked 3rd, a “public university” according to the THE “promoting a diverse student population and welcoming students from any background, gender and geographic origin”;
• Institut Polytechnique de Paris, ranked 8th, a “public higher education and research institution grouping five major French schools of engineering” and “welcoming each year 8,500 students, including 35% of international students”;
• Université Paris Cité, ranked 11th, an institution “making part of French universities with high intensity of most prestigious researches, internationally recognised for its excellence in terms of research, and complete interdisciplinary programmes”;
• Université Paris-Saclay, ranked 12th, a university which has integrated “the Paris-Saclay project gathering nine higher education institutions and a company hub on the university campus with high intensity of research”;
• Sorbonne Université, ranked 15th, a public university created in 2018, but which can “trace back its history to the 13th century and to the University of Paris, which had a Sorbonne College created in 1257 by Robert de Sorbon”.

Five additional French institutions in the Top 100

In addition to these five institutions, five more French universities and schools are present in the Top 100, with comment from THE.

Are included in the ranking:

• Université de Montpellier (55th), created in January 2015 and “returns to the universal ambition of the first university created in Montpellier in 1289”;
• IMT Atlantique (60th), one of the “210 French schools of engineering authorised to grant engineer diplomas” and has “several campuses located in Nantes, Brest, Rennes, ans another site in Toulouse;
• Université de Bordeaux (75th), one of the “first universities to obtain the confirmation of the Initiative of Excellence label granted by the French government in recognition to its innovative programmes for training, research and transfer of knowledge”;
• Aix-Marseille Université (77th), which is, still according to the THE “the biggest university of the French-speaking world in terms of student groups and dotation”;
• Institut Agro (81th), internationally recognised as a major player for the development of capacities in engineering, design and management of agrofood systems” and “committed in the entire world in the transformation of agrofood systems to comply with the Sustainable Development Goals”.

In addition to these 10 first institutions, 12 more are in the Top 500: Ecole Centrale de Nantes, Université de Nice - Côte d’Azur, Université Grenoble Alpes, Université de Bourgogne – France Comté, Université de Toulouse, Université CY de Cergy-Pontoise, Université de Lorraine, Université de Clermont-Auvergne, IMT Nord-Europe, Université Polytechnique des Hauts-de-France, Université Louis Lumière – Lyon 2, Université de Technologie de Troyes,

To discover more, check out the full ranking on the THE website