Once again, the University of Stuttgart has been ranked higher in the THE’s annual World University Ranking and now ranks among the top 15 percent of universities worldwide in the current year (having been placed in the 251-300 group out of 1904 universities assessed, and 25th out of 49 German universities listed). This means that, since the previous year, the University of Stuttgart has improved both by international comparison (by more than 40 places) and by national comparison (by eight places).
Among other things, this is largely due to the excellent scores awarded in the "Industry" and "Research Environment" categories. In the "Industry” category, the university was ranked 54th worldwide (and 12th compared with other universities in Germany), which places the University of Stuttgart among the global top 3 percent in this field. In terms of "Research Environment”, the university was ranked 114th worldwide (and 15th compared with other universities in Germany), which places it among the global top 7 percent in these fields.
About the THE World University Ranking 3.0
The Times Higher Education (THE) World University Ranking (WUR) survey has been carried out since 2004 and is considered one of the three most important rankings for universities around the world. The survey methodology was revised for the 20th edition of the ranking publication: the THE WUR 3.0 included five new indicators whilst the weighting system applied to the various indicators was modified. For example, the number of patents per employee (i.e., patents in which research conducted at the respective university have been cited) now account for 2 percentage points each within the "Industry" category, in addition to third party funding from industrial stakeholders. In addition, the "International Outlook” category has been augmented with a "Studying abroad” indicator, albeit the travel restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic years have resulted in the exclusion of this indicator in this year’s evaluation. "Research Environment" and "Teaching" now account for 29 and 29.5 percent respectively within the new ranking scheme whereas they each previously accounted for 30 percent of the ranking awarded. The citations section which has now been put under the "Research Quality” heading, still carries a weighting of 30 percent but now includes "Citation Impact" (15 percent) and three new indicators "Research Strength", "Research Excellence", and "Research Influence", each of which account for five percent of the overall weighting.