Three Shenzhen universities were placed among the global top 500 in the 2025 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), released last week by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy.

The Southern University of Science and Technology was ranked in the 101–150 band, Shenzhen University in the 201–300 band, and The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen in the 401–500 band.

Aerial views of the Southern University of Science and Technology (Top) and Shenzhen University. Shenzhen Special Zone Daily

China overtook the United States in terms of the total number of universities ranked on the list, with 222 Chinese mainland universities included — 19 more than last year — compared with 183 U.S. institutions. Thirteen Chinese universities were ranked in the global top 100.

Guests unveil the School of Artificial Intelligence of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen on Feb. 13. Courtesy of CUHK (SZ)

Harvard University topped the list for the 23rd consecutive year, followed by Stanford and MIT. The rest of the global top 10 were Cambridge (4th), Berkeley (5th), Oxford (6th), Princeton (7th), Columbia (8th), Caltech (9th) and Chicago (10th).

In Continental Europe, Paris?Saclay University (13th) remained the region’s highest?ranked institution, followed by ETH Zurich (22nd).

Among Asian universities, Tsinghua University climbed four places to 18th, retaining its position as the top university in Asia. The University of Melbourne (38th) continued to lead universities in Oceania for the 15th consecutive year since 2011.

ARWU, published annually since 2003, evaluates institutions using a transparent methodology based on objective third?party data. Its six core indicators include the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, the count of highly cited researchers identified by Clarivate, and publications in the journals Nature and Science. More than 2,500 institutions were assessed this year, and only the names of the top 1,000 worldwide were unveiled.