Two Nanshan universities have been included in the 2026 Academic Ranking of World Universities. The ranking, released by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy on Aug. 15, lists the world’s top 1,000 research universities.

Freshmen report to SUSTech in this file photo.

Southern University of Science and Technology placed in the 101-150 band, remaining Shenzhen’s highest-ranked institution. Shenzhen University moved up one band from last year to rank 151-200.

A view of Shenzhen University's campus.

Two other universities in the city also made the list.

A graphic shows the global and Chinese mainland ranking bands of the four Shenzhen universities included in the 2026 Academic Ranking of World Universities. ShanghaiRanking.com

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen in Longgang was ranked 401-500, while Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology in Guangming entered the ranking in the 801-900 band. Shenzhen had three universities on the list last year.

Universities outside the global top 100 are grouped into ranking bands rather than assigned individual positions.

A total of 234 universities from the Chinese mainland made this year’s list, with 16 entering the global top 100, three more than last year.

Tsinghua University ranked 18th worldwide and first in Asia, followed among Chinese mainland institutions by Peking University at No. 22, Zhejiang University at No. 24, Shanghai Jiao Tong University at No. 27, the University of Science and Technology of China at No. 39 and Fudan University at No. 41.

Southeast University, Harbin Institute of Technology and Tianjin University entered the global top 100 for the first time, ranking 89th, 97th and 98th, respectively.

First published in 2003, the Academic Ranking of World Universities is commonly known as the Shanghai Ranking. It evaluates universities using six research-focused indicators based on third-party data.

The indicators include the number of alumni and staff who have won Nobel Prizes or Fields Medals, highly cited researchers, papers published in Nature and Science, articles indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index, and per-capita academic performance.

More than 2,500 universities are evaluated each year, according to ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, although only the top 1,000 are published.