FOUR Shenzhen universities have been included in the 2026 Academic Ranking of World Universities, with the newly established Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology making its debut. The ranking, recently released by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, lists the world’s top 1,000 research universities. Southern University of Science and Technology was placed within the 101-150 band, remaining Shenzhen’s highest-ranked institution. Shenzhen University moved up one band from last year to rank in the 151-200 bracket. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen was ranked between 401st and 500th, while Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology entered the ranking in the 801-900 band. Shenzhen had three universities on the list last year. Universities outside the global top 100 are grouped into ranking bands rather than assigned individual positions. A total of 234 universities from the Chinese mainland made this year’s list, with 16 entering the global top 100, three more than last year. Tsinghua University ranked 18th worldwide and first in Asia, followed among Chinese mainland institutions by Peking University at No. 22, Zhejiang University at No. 24, Shanghai Jiao Tong University at No. 27, the University of Science and Technology of China at No. 39 and Fudan University at No. 41. Southeast University, Harbin Institute of Technology and Tianjin University entered the global top 100 for the first time, ranking 89th, 97th and 98th, respectively. First published in 2003, the Academic Ranking of World Universities is commonly known as the Shanghai Ranking. It evaluates universities using six research-focused indicators based on third-party data. The indicators include the number of alumni and staff who have won Nobel Prizes or Fields Medals, highly cited researchers, papers published in Nature and Science, articles indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index, and per-capita academic performance. Over 2,500 universities are evaluated each year, although only the top 1,000 are published. (SD News) | 