Listen to the audio version of the article
Sometimes even a confirmation can make news. Especially when it comes to universities. We are talking about the Sapienza University of Rome which for the fourth consecutive year is confirmed as first in the world for Classical Studies and Ancient History. This is stated in the 2024 ranking of QS universities by discipline which, overall, places Italian university education in seventh place globally, second in the European Union. Other noteworthy placings are those of the Scuola Superiore Normale di Pisa which loses one position compared to 2023 but still remains fifth in the same area in which the Capitoline university excels and the double seventh position which the Polytechnic of Milan for Architecture brings home / Built environment (where it was tenth last year) and for Art and design (here it was eighth, ed.). In turn, the Free International University of Social Studies (LUISS) confirms itself in the Top 20 in the world and first nationally for political and international studies.
The other Italians in the top 10
Overall, there are eight Italian universities present in the top 10 of the various disciplines. To the four we have already seen, add first of all the double result brought home by Bocconi in Milan, which becomes seventh for Marketing and ninth for Economics and Management Studies compared to the eighth and seventh place achieved in the same subjects 12 months ago. PoliMi and Sapienza complete the group again: the former drops from seventh to ninth place for mechanical, aeronautical and manufacturing engineering; the second instead rises from eleventh to tenth place for Archaeology.
The country system
The QS ranking now includes 56 Italian universities, for a total of 577 placements (47 more than the previous edition) in 55 academic disciplines, including Music, the new entry of this edition. In total, there are 71 new Italian entries. As regards overall performance, 45% of the Italian places in the ranking remained stable, 19% recorded an improvement, while 24% suffered a decline, with a slight overall decline by 5% compared to last year. Furthermore, Italian universities were awarded 99 positions (three 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.
Globally, Italy ranks seventh in terms of number of entries in the ranking and eighth in terms of number of universities present. In a comparison restricted to the EU, however, Italy ranks second in terms of number of entries in the world top ten subjects, with eight entries, immediately after the Netherlands, in the lead with 13.
In particular, Italy appears to be the ninth best university education system globally among the 96 countries classified as placing in the Top 10. Its eight places in the ranking equal those of China – despite a number of universities less than half that to the Chinese – and they surpass those of Germany, France and Japan by three positions.
Areas of excellence
Among the Italian excellences, Medicine stands out first and foremost, recording 30 Italian placings in the rankings, led by the Statale di Milano, which establishes itself as a national leader in this field. Next, we find Biological Sciences with 29 Italians, led by the University of Padua and Physics and Astronomy which sees the Sapienza University of Rome establishing itself as the best Italian in this field.
Sapienza which is also the most represented university in the ranking, given that its name appears a total of 47 times; behind her Bologna and Padua which appear in 46 and 37 situations. Completing the top 5 placements were Milano Statale (32 citations) and Federico II of Naples with 30.
The focus of the Qs dedicated to our country deserves a mention due to the greater improvements compared to last year among Italian universities with more than five entries in the ranking. Also in this case, Sapienza is first, with an increase of 21%, preceding Luiss Guido Carli and the Polytechnic of Milan, both improved by 17% from one edition to the next.
The new entries
The Polytechnic of Milan stands out for the highest number of new entries in Italy this year, for a total of eight, which brings its total to 23. In particular, it enters in 12th place for Petroleum Engineering, 23rd for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and falls in the 51-100 range for Development Studies. In turn, Bocconi also sees significant expansion with the addition of six new disciplines, thus reaching 11. It debuts among the top 50 in the world in Politics and Social Administration, with 38th position, and in Law, with 57th .
