Italian universities are seventh after those of the United States, United Kingdom, Continental China, Germany, Australia and Canada. The ranking provides independent comparative analysis of the performance of more than 1,500 universities in 96 countries and territories.
Harvard University is the best performing in the world, ranking first in 19 disciplines. Next comes the MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which excels in 11 disciplines. Italian universities were awarded 99 positions (3 more than the last edition) in the five major areas of study: arts and human sciences, engineering and technology, life sciences, natural sciences and social sciences. The Qs ranking now includes 56 Italian universities, for a total of 577 rankings - with a net increase of 47 compared to the previous edition - in 55 academic disciplines, including Music, the new entry of this edition. Among the new features, 71 new Italian placings. 45% of Italian places in the ranking remained stable, 19% recorded an improvement, while 24% suffered a decline, with a slight overall decline of -5%.