Top spot in Shanghai Ranking 2021 for remote sensing

The 2021 edition of the Academic Ranking of World Universities, also known as the Shanghai Ranking, has been published. The Global Ranking of Academic Subjects was first published in 2017. Since then, the University of Twente has been able to claim a spot in the global top ten for the academic subject remote sensing.

Freek van der Meer, dean at the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, is pleased with the appreciation for the academic work being done at the ITC Faculty in the field of remote sensing. "Our scientific research is the breeding ground for our education, and remote sensing plays a vital role in almost everything we do at ITC. In the study programmes we offer, students are encouraged to use remote sensing and geographic information systems to problem-solving in the context of capacity development.

A means, not a goal

For 2021, the University of Twente holds the 9^th place on remote sensing in the Shanghai Ranking. "Although I am pleased with this result, I do want to stress that for us, this ranking is a means and not a goal in itself", Freek states. "In the end, we aim for societal impact. As we wrote down in our mission and vision statement for 2020-2030, our mission is capacity development, where we apply, share and facilitate the effective use of geo-information and earth observation knowledge and tools for tackling global wicked problems. To be recognized and appreciated in the area of remote sensing as an important university in this regard is a good means for this, but not a goal in itself.”

About the Arwu Shanghai Ranking

The ARWU Shanghai Ranking is published annually and gives an insight into the academic quality of the world's leading institutions. ARWU uses six objective indicators to rank world universities, including the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, number of highly cited researchers selected by Clarivate Analytics and the number of articles published in journals of Nature and Science. ARWU is regarded as one of the three most influential and widely observed university rankings, alongside QS World University Rankings and Times Higher Education World University Rankings.