Britain's Times Higher Education (THE) assigns to the Scuola Normale Superiore the first place among Italian universities and 68th place in the world ranking in the Physical Sciences sector, which includes Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. Ambrosio: “This confirms our tradition in the fundamental scientific disciplines”.

Pisa, 16th September 2021. The Scuola Normale Superiore is ranked first Italian university in the Physical Sciences sector, which includes Mathematics and Statistics, Physics and Astronomy, and Chemistry and Geology, by the Times Higher Education, in its “World University Rankings by Subject 2022”, published today. The SNS is in 68th place in the world ranking, out of 1227 universities ranked, moving up 14 places from last year's ranking (when it was 82nd). Moreover, it ranks as the best university in Italy out of 39 Italian universities considered.

The first universities ranking worldwide in the Physical Sciences are all from the United States, with 7 institutions occupying the first 10 places and 35 among the first 100. In particular, the University of California (Berkeley), the California Institute of Technology and Princeton University grace the podium. The domination of the American and English-speaking institutions is tempered by the ETH of Zurich, in Switzerland (9th).

The Times Higher Education subject rankings utilise13 performance indicators to evaluate 5 university parameters: quality of teaching, quality of research (each with a weight of 27.5% of the calculation of the final score), influence of research (35%), internationalisation of the teaching staff and students (7.5%), and innovation (2.5%). In addition to the Physical Sciences, rankings have also been drawn up for the sectors of Life Sciences and Clinical & Health, Psychology.

“Despite its disadvantage compared with universities with a much higher number of lecturers and students, the Scuola Normale Superiore has obtained a significant result in the Physical Sciences sector, which covers study courses and research paths of our entire Faculty of Sciences at Pisa”, commented the Director of the Scuola Normale Superiore, Luigi Ambrosio. “Indeed, a few months ago, in June, the Scuola Normale Superiore also came first among Italian universities in the Russian-based Round University Ranking, and was placed among the first twenty universities worldwide regarding Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. Hence, even with a change of ranking body, criteria and number of universities included in the ranking, the excellent judgement that we have been accorded holds good in a context that is so important for the tradition of the Scuola Normale Superiore”.