UGent first Belgian university as Harvard rules

The Ghent university UGent is the first Belgian player on the Academic Ranking of World Universities. This being said, UGent loses seven places compared to last year, to end in 69th position. The U.S. rules with 13 universities in the top-15. Harvard is on one, Stanford on two and Cambridge on three on the ranking compiled by the Chinese university Jia Tong in Shanghai.

Jia Tong uses different parameters to compile the ranking, like the number of prizes professors have won, the number of papers that is being published and the number of theses that made it to the Science Citation Index.

Belgium has to be content with two universities in the top-100: KU Leuven is the other one on 90. UGent told De Standaard that "Ghent is doing well because their scientists are often being quoted by others." Another factor contributing to the success are publications in renowned magazines such as Nature and Science. 

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