This year, Casa de Bello celebrates 19 years as Chile’s top ranked university and lands among the nine best in Latin America, according to the most influential international ranking. At a local level, placed in the segment of the world’s best 501-600, follows Pontificia Universidad Católica and in the 801-900 segment, Universidad Andrés Bello, and Universidad de Concepción.
 

Objective indicators associated with the quality of students, professors, and graduates, as well as academic performance through a scientifically sound methodology, is what is evaluated by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, the classification of higher education institutions considered as the most prestigious and widely used in the world.
 

The 2021 edition of this measurement positioned Universidad de Chile for the nineteenth consecutive year as the country’s leader and the only one among the world’s best 500, ranking in the 401-500 segment. At the national level, it was followed by Pontificia Universidad Católica, which was located in the 501-600 segment and Chile's third place was occupied by Universidad Andrés Bello with Universidad de Concepción coming in fourth, both achieving the 801-900 segment.
 

Universidad de Chile also stood out among the nine best schools in Latin America, a category which in this edition, was only occupied by public institutions. The first place in the region was once again awarded to  the University of Sao Paulo, in the range of the world’s best 101-150 followed by the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the University of Buenos Aires, both in the 201-300 segment. In the 301-400 division, meanwhile, Brazilian universities of Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo State and Campinas were positioned. Finally, in the range of 401-500, Brazilian universities Federal de Mina Gerais and Federal de Rio de Janeiro appeared alongside Universidad de Chile.

Although this measurement enshrines Universidad de Chile’s overall good results,  ARWU latest ranking by disciplines enlists our faculty in areas such as Economic Sciences (201-300); Administration (201-300) and Business Administration (301-400). The other areas of knowledge where the university stood out were Mining and Mineral Engineering (49 in the world); Transportation Science and Technology (101-150); Veterinary Sciences (101-150); Dentistry and Oral Sciences (101-150); Mathematics (151-200); Earth Sciences (151-200); Geography (201-300); Atmospheric Sciences (201-300); Electrical and Electronic Engineering (201-300); Civil Engineering (201-300); Food Science and Technology (201-300); Ecology (301-400); Biotechnology (301-400); Agricultural Sciences (301-400); Education (301-400); among others.

Chancellor Ennio Vivaldi highlighted the newly obtained result, acknowledging the role of the entire university community in obtaining this position. This result, he said, “is an objective indicator of the level of excellence and international impact that characterizes our team, work that is also historically associated with a deep commitment to the country’s challenges. This result reaffirms our commitment to the national community, even more under this context of a pandemic. "
 

ARWU evaluates, in total, over 2,000 universities worldwide, from which it selects the best 1,000. Objective indicators are used to rank such as academic or research performance, including the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, number of highly cited researchers, number of articles published in Nature and Science journals, number of articles indexed in main citation indexes, and the institutions’ per capita performance. The indicators are weighted as follows: Quality of Education (10%), Quality of Faculty (40%), Research Output (40%) and Per Capita Academic Performance of an Institution (10%).