Illustration Shutterstock U.S. News ranks Wageningen’s environmental and ecological research number one in the world in its annual ranking. Places two and three are occupied by Harvard and Berkeley. The ranking is based on scientific performance and reputation, measured according to the number of publications between 2015 and 2019 and the number of citations of said publications.
U.S. News (the second-largest news magazine in the United States) started publishing annual rankings of universities in 2014. In addition, the magazine makes rankings that focus on specific domains. WUR occupies 80th place in the overall ranking. Dutch universities of Amsterdam (UvA, 38th), Utrecht (48th) and Rotterdam (62nd) score higher. But WUR scores high in the sub rankings.
In addition to a global first place in environment and ecology, WUR also scores the highest in a previously released ranking for agricultural sciences. The rise of Chinese universities in the ranking is noteworthy. Chinese universities occupy places two, three and four of the ranking. Former leading universities such as Davis (University of California) and Cornell are ranked six and seven.
Plants and animals
With a global second place, WUR also scores high in plant and animal sciences. In this sub ranking, Davis comes in first. WUR food sciences and technology is ranked sixth. Chinese universities dominate this sub ranking, with no less than five Chinese universities in the top ten, and the South China University of Technology in Guangzhou ranked highest.
