Shanghai Ranking 2026: France Confirms Its Academic Excellence

Published on 15 August 2026 by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) reaffirms France’s position among the world’s leading nations for higher education and research.

With 27 institutions ranked among the world’s top 1,000 universities, France has gained one place and now ranks 10th globally in terms of the number of institutions represented.

France has also risen to 6th place worldwide for the number of universities featured in the Top 100, with four institutions: Paris-Saclay University (13th), the highest-ranked non-Anglophone university in the world, Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) (33rd), Sorbonne University (55th), and Université Paris Cité (57th).

France follows the United States (37 institutions in the Top 100), China (18), the United Kingdom (8), Switzerland (5), and Australia (5).

The 2026 edition is also marked by the first-ever entry of the University of Western Brittany (Université de Bretagne Occidentale) into the ranking, as well as the return of the University of Angers, which had not appeared since 2021.