Shanghai, Leiden, Reuters: UM tops international rankings
The University of Montpellier ranks among the world's leading universities. This is proof of the positive momentum generated by the rollout of its I-SITE (France 2030) program of excellence.
Shanghai ranking: UM in the top 200
The Shanghai Global Ranking 2025
The Shanghai Ranking is published annually by Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China). It is one of the benchmarks in the academic world. The 2024 edition of the Shanghai Ranking once again demonstrates the very positive overall momentum of UM, which has been confirmed for the eighth consecutive year in the 151-200 ranking of the world's best universities. Having risen steadily since 2016, when the UM was ranked in the top 400, these strong results demonstrate that the University of Montpellier, thanks in particular to its I-SITE Excellence program, is a major player in higher education, Research innovation in France.
The Shanghai 2025 thematic ranking
This international thematic ranking analyzes and ranks the world's best universities according to their academic subjects. More than 50 subjects (natural sciences, engineering, life sciences, medicine, and social sciences, etc.) are listed and analyzed. Based on performance criteria such as university publications, their impact, international dimension, and quality of research, as well as international prizes and awards, this ranking places the University of Montpellier among the world's best universities for the eighth consecutive year.
This new edition of the Shanghai thematic ranking confirms the University of Montpellier's position among the most internationally recognized institutions. Ecology occupies a prominent position, ranking 14th worldwide and 1st in France, attesting to the university's national leadership in the discipline. It is also the only French university (outside Paris) to have a subject area ranked in the global top 10.
Several subjects feature in the global top 75, including robotics, water resources, and agricultural sciences, which rank among the top two nationally. These results illustrate the strength of the areas of expertise for which the institution is particularly renowned.
The global top 100 also includes remote sensing, statistics, and oceanography, with the latter showing significant progress compared to 2024, when it ranked in the top 150. These developments highlight positive momentum in strategic scientific sectors.
Other disciplines, such as food science and technology (ranked 2nd nationally) and chemistry, remain in the global top 150, confirming the diversity and strength of the university's centers of excellence.
TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION (THE)
The Times Higher Education Impact Rankingsaim to measure the commitment and performance of higher education institutions in terms of sustainable development. This innovative ranking goes beyond simply analyzing research or training, taking a much more societal approach. It is based on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015.
The University of Montpellier has confirmed its progress inThe Times Higher Education Impact Rankings. In itssixthedition, it maintains its top position among French institutions and ranks among the world's top 101-200 institutions for its long-standing commitment to sustainable development. This year, it ranks in the world's top 50 for two goals related to the institution's major themes: feeding, caring for, and protecting. The UM stands out in the SDG "good health and well-being" category, ranking30thworldwide and 1st in France. The UM has made significant progress in the SDG "life below water" category, ranking30thworldwide and once again1stnationally, demonstrating once again the UM's excellence in ecology.
The University of Montpellier ranks67thworldwide in the SDGs "reducing inequalities" and77thin the SDG "work and economic growth," placing it at the top of French institutions. All these results demonstrate UM's total commitment to social responsibility.
Leiden ranking: Center for World University Ranking
Created in 2011, the ranking produced by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University measures the scientific reputation of institutions and their research collaboration. The 2024 ranking lists more than 1,500 institutions and covers five disciplinary fields: medicine, physics, life and earth sciences, mathematics, and humanities and social sciences. The Leiden ranking is based on scientific publications, in particular articles published in scientific journals, which enable it to select sophisticated bibliometric indicators in order to generate results and analyze the ranking of universities according to one or more selected indicators.
- The quality of education, measured by the number of former students of a university who have won international prizes, awards, and medals relative to the size of the university (25%)
- The employability of former students, measured by the number of former students from a university who have held CEO positions in the world's largest companies relative to the size of the university (25%)
- The academic quality of the university, measured by the number of academics who have won international prizes, awards, and medals (10%)
- The research output, measured by the total number of research articles (10%)
- High-quality publications, measured by the number of research articles published in top-tier journals (10%)
- Influence, measured by the number of research articles published in highly influential journals (10%)
- Citations, measured by the number of research documents cited (10%)
The University of Montpellier has once again confirmed its scientific influence both nationally and internationally, ranking fourth in France (first university outside Paris) and 203rd worldwide.
QS World University Rankings
The QS World University Rankings, created in 2004, is one of the most reputable global rankings for higher education and research. It places a strong emphasis on reputation surveys, which account for 50% of the evaluation. This year, out of more than 1,700 of the most recognized universities in around 100 countries, 171 institutions are ranked according to 55 subject rankings, all grouped into five areas.
Now in its 15th edition, it maintains its status in the overall ranking among the best institutions worldwide and nationally.
The University of Montpellier is the French institution that has made the most progress this year, rising from 151st to 119th place in environmental sciences "thanks to significant gains in terms of academic reputation and reputation among employers," the British company also points out. The UM appears 22 times in this year's ranking, compared to 18 times in 2024, confirming its year-on-year progress.
National Taiwan University (NTU) ranking
The "Performance ranking of scientific papers for world universities," also known as NTU, is published annually by National Taiwan University (NTU). It compares the scientific performance of universities worldwide based on academic publications and three criteria: research productivity, research impact, and research excellence. This year, NTU is publishing the overall performance rankings (top 1,000), as well as six field-specific rankings and 27 subject-specific rankings (top 100 and top 500).
The University of Montpellier ranks among the top four in France and the top 127 worldwide in the NTU world university ranking. It also performs remarkably well in subject-specific rankings by discipline and research topic.
Reuters: Second-ranked French university
This ranking lists the 100 most innovative universities worldwide: those that are making the greatest efforts to advance science, invent new technologies, and help support the growth of the global economy. Unlike other rankings, which are often based entirely or partly on subjective surveys, Reuters relies exclusively on empirical data such as patent filings and citations of research publications.
In 2019, the University of Montpellier ranked second in France and 17th in Europe.