An international survey has listed Hebrew University of Jerusalem as the one of the world's top universities.
According to the report issued by China's Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Hebrew University is 65th among the world’s top 100 universities in the new Academic Ranking of World Universities. The Jerusalem campus is the only Israeli institution included in the list, joining such top names as Harvard, Stanford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)and Britain's Cambridge University.
The annual survey evaluates more than 2,000 universities around the world and ranks the top 500 among them. Other Israeli universities fell into ranking categories below the top 100. Tel Aviv University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology were ranked at 151. The Weizmann Institute came in at 200. Bar Ilan University and Ben Gurion University of the Negev were ranked at 401.
Rankings are based on a combined scale of academic criteria that include awards won by alumni and staff, articles published in leading scientific journals, and the number of highly cited researchers. The list is considered an authoritative mark of quality in the academic world.
Hebrew University President Prof. Menachem Magidor said the institution's inclusion on the exclusive list was an impressive achievement, but warned that higher education needs additional funding to remain competitive.
"The fact that six Israeli universities are listed among the top 500 universities in the world with the Hebrew University ranked among the top 100 is most impressive, (especially) when we take into account the size of Israel," he said. "However, without a solution to the acute crisis in which higher education in Israel is currently enmeshed, it will be impossible to maintain the status of Israeli academia in general and that of the Hebrew University in particular."