University of Iceland remains the only Icelandic university in the Shanghai University Rankings

The University of Iceland has been placed 501-600 in the new 2020 list of the best universities in the world from the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy. It remains the only Icelandic university to make the list.

The list, which has been published every year since 2003, is formally entitled the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), but is generally known as the Shanghai Ranking. ShanghaiRanking Consultancy base their assessment on the overall success of a university in a global context, using several indicators: the number of papers published in renowned scientific journals; the number of times papers have been cited by other researchers; the university's performance based on the number of staff; and the number of staff who have received awards for their contributions to individual fields of study. They look at almost 2,000 universities and then publish a list ranking the best 1,000. 

As stated above, the University of Iceland placed 500-600 this year and has been included in the rankings since 2017.

Earlier this summer, the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy published lists of the best universities in the world in specific subjects. The University of Iceland was ranked 6th best in the world for remote sensing, which involves taking digital images from aircraft and satellites and analysing these images to determine information about the surface of the earth. The University was also ranked 40th best for electrical and electronic engineering, among the top 150 for earth sciences and nursing, 151-200 in biological sciences, 200-300 for geography, human biology, political science and tourism studies, and 301-400 in atmospheric science, public health and clinical medicine. Furthermore, the University's performance earned it a place among the top 500 in ecology, psychology and economics and this is the first year that UI has been included in the rankings for the latter.

The Shanghai Ranking is one of the two most respected and influential university rankings in the world. The other is the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, in which the University of Iceland has been included for almost a decade.
The latest Shanghai Ranking can be found on the organisation's website.