Věda a výzkum na UP: UP in International Rankings: Research at Palacký University

Palacký University Olomouc has been listed in many prestigious international rankings that compare universities across the world and are based on a variety of parameters. The individual rankings differ from each other by the choice of entry criteria and the indicators under assessment. Some work with freely available data, mostly from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, while others obtain data directly from universities and from various surveys (e.g. among academics, researchers, industrial partners, alumni). However, the resulting ranking can also be a combination of both of the above. The most commonly assessed areas are education quality, research performance, industry collaboration, and internationalisation. Indicators relating to reputation are also important components. Some rankings also compare universities within individual disciplines. The specific methodologies of each ranking are listed below.

Rankings	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)	501st–600th	701st–800th	701st–800th	601st–700th	601st–700th
Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE)	601st–800th	801st–1000th	1001st–1200th	801st–1000th	1001st–1200th
QS World University Rankings (QS)	591st–600th	601st–650th	651st–700th	631st–640th	651st–660th
Best Global Universities Ranking (US News)	529th	568th	611th	not published	671st
CWUR (The Center for World University Rankings)	573rd	572nd	566th	591st	625th

The position of UP in the ranking is given according to the year of the ranking.

Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)

The ARWU ranking (Academic Ranking of World Universities), or “Shanghai Ranking”, is the oldest international university ranking in the world. It was first published in 2003 by Shanghai University; since 2009 it has been published by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy company. The Academic Ranking of World Universities works with the Web of Science database and focuses primarily on the scientific and research performance of institutions, which are evaluated on the basis of the six indicators listed below.

Criteria	Indicator	Weight
Quality of Education	Alumni of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals	10%
Quality of Faculty	Staff of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals	20%
Quality of Faculty	Highly Cited Researchers in 21 research areas selected by Clarivate Analytics (only primary affiliations are considered)	20%
Research Outputs	Papers indexed in Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) in the previous year (only publications of “Article” type are considered)	20%
Research Outputs	Research articles published in Nature and Science in the last five years (only publications of “Article” type are considered)	20%
Per Capita Performance	Per capita academic performance of an institution (weighted scores of the above five indicators divided by the number of academic staff)	10%

Detailed ranking methodology is available here.

Palacký University was listed in the Shanghai Ranking for the first time in 2017, when it was ranked 601st–700th. Although UP dropped to the 701st–800th positions in 2021 and 2022, it managed to return to the previous 601st–700th positions and keeps them. UP keeps the third position among Czech universities.

Rankings of Czech universities in the Academic Ranking of World Universities for the last 5 years:

	ARWU 2020	ARWU 2021	ARWU 2022	ARWU 2023	ARWU 2024
Charles University, Prague	201st–300.	201st–300.	301st–400th	301st–400th	301st–400th
Masaryk University, Brno	601st–700th	601st–700th	401st–500th	401st–500th	401st–500th
Palacký University Olomouc	501st–600th	701st–800th	701st–800th	601st–700th	601st–700th
Brno University of Technology	-	701st–800th	901st–1000th	701st–800th	701st–800th
Czech Technical University in Prague	701st–800th	801st–900th	801st–900th	801st–900th	801st–900th
Czech University of Life Sciences Prague	801st–900th	801st–900th	801st–900th	601st–700th	801st–900th
VSB – Technical University of Ostrava	-	901st–1000th	901st–1000th	-	-
University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice	901st–1000th	-	901st–1000th	-	-
University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague	901st–1000th	-	-	-	-

Global Ranking of Academic Subjects

In addition to the global rankings, university rankings are also published annually in 55 subjects across Natural Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Social Sciences. The Global Ranking of Academic Subjects adjusted its methodology in 2024. This now focuses on 5 categories, which are further broken down into individual indicators (see below):

World-Class Faculty (4 new indicators)
- International Academic Award Laureates (Laureate), Highly Cited Researchers (HCR), Chief Editors of International Academic Journals (Editor), International Academic Organization Leadership (Leadership)
World-Class Output
- Top Journal Papers (TJ), International Academic Awards (Award)
High-Quality Research
- Q1 Journal Papers (Q1)
Research Impact
- Category Normalized Citation Impact (CNCI)
International Collaboration
- International Collaborated Papers (IC)

The weight of indicators varies across disciplines.

In the latest edition of the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2024, Palacký University broke into the top five in five fields (physics, ecology, biological sciences, agricultural sciences, medical and pharmaceutical sciences) and in two of them belongs to the TOP 400.

Palacký University in the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects for 2024
Physics	401–500
Ecology	401–500
Biological Sciences	301–400
Agricultural Sciences	301–400
Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences	401–500

Sport Science Ranking - Global Ranking of Sport Science Schools and Departments

The Shanghai Ranking also publishes assessments of institutions and departments specialising in sports science. This ranking evaluates five criteria: articles indexed on WoS, total number of citations, number of citations per article, number of articles in Q1 journals and percentage of articles with international collaborations.

In this ranking, the Faculty of Physical Culture of Palacký University regularly performs very well, holding the position of the Czech number one since the first edition in 2016, ahead of Charles University, which is ranked 151^st–200^th in the most recent edition for 2023.

Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE)

The rankings, published since 2010 by the UK newspaper The Times Higher Education, are among the three most respected global rankings of universities and higher education institutions. They employ Elsevier’s Scopus database and focus on evaluating universities in several areas: education, research environment, research quality, industry collaboration, and international outlook. The evaluation published in autumn 2023 entailed a fairly significant update of the methodology, last changed in 2011. With the new methodology, the number of performance indicators has increased from the original 13 to the current 18, with five completely new indicators (four of which focus on assessing research quality).

Area	Indicator	Weight
Education	Doctorate-to-Bachelor’s ratio	2%
	Doctorates-awarded-to-academic-staff ratio	5.5%
	Teaching reputation	15%
	Staff-to-student ratio	4.5%
	Institutional income per scholar	2.5%
Research Environment	Research productivity (number of publications per scholar)	5.5%
	Research reputation	18%
	Research income per scholar	5.5%
Research Quality	Citation impact	15%
	Research strength (75th percentile of field-weighted citation impact – FWCI)	5%
	Number of publications in the top 10% for FWCI	5%
	Citation rate in highly cited sources	5%
Industry	Industry income per scholar	2%
Industry	Patents citing published research	2%
International Outlook	Proportion of international staff	2.5%
	Proportion of papers in international collaboration	2.5%
	Proportion of international students	2.5%
	International learning opportunities for domestic students (zero weight due to Covid-19, temporarily)	0%

Detailed methodology is available here.

Palacký University Olomouc entered THE World University Ranking (WUR) for the first time in the 2015–2016 edition. In the most recent ranking published in autumn 2024 (World University Rankings 2025), Palacký University is ranked 1001st-1200th, which means a decrease compared to the previous year and also the rank fourth among Czech universities. Of the five pillars evaluated, UP ranked best in the International outlook (618th place). The best score among the weighted indicators was achieved in the Research income and Research influence indicators.

Rankings of Czech universities in the THE World University Rankings for the last 5 years:

	THE WUR 2021	THE WUR 2022	THE WUR 2023	new methodology THE WUR 2024	new methodology THE WUR 2025
Charles University, Prague	401st–500th	401st–500th	401st–500th	401st–500th	401st–500th
Masaryk University, Brno	601st–800th	801st–1000th	801st–1000th	601st–800th	601st–800th
Czech University of Life Sciences Prague	1001st+	1001st–1200th	1001st–1200th	801st–1000th	801st–1000th
Palacký University Olomouc	601st–800th	801st–1000th	1001st–1200th	801st–1000th	1001st–1200th
Brno University of Technology	1001st+	1201st+	1201st–1500th	1001st–1200th	1001st–1200th
Czech Technical University in Prague	1001st+	1001st–1200th	1201st–1500th	1001st–1200th	1001st–1200th
University of Hradec Králové	1001st+	1201st+	1201st–1500th	1201st–1500th	1001st–1200th
University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice	801st–1000th	801st–1000th	801st–1000th	1001st–1200th	1001st–1200th
Mendel University in Brno	1001st+	1201st+	1201st–1500th	1201st–1500th	1201st–1500th
Tomas Bata University in Zlín	1001st+	1201st+	1501st+	1201st–1500th	1201st–1500th
University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague	1001st+	1201st+	1201st–1500th	1001st–1200th	1201st–1500th
University of West Bohemia, Plzeň	1001st+	1001st–1200th	1201st–1500th	1201st–1500th	1201st–1500th
VSB – Technical University of Ostrava	1001st+	1201st+	1201st–1500th	1201st–1500th	1201st–1500th
Prague University of Economics and Business	1001st+	1201st+	1501st+	1501st+	1501st+
Technical University of Liberec	1001st+	1201st+	1501st+	1501st+	1501st+
University of Ostrava	1001st+	1201st+	1201st–1500th	1501st+	1501st+
University of Pardubice	1001st+	1201st+	1501st+	1501st+	1501st+
Jan Evangelista Purkyně University, Ústí nad Labem	1001st+	1201st+	1501st+	1501st+	-

World University Rankings by Subject

In addition to the global rankings, rankings are also published annually in 11 areas, which are Arts & Humanities, Business & Economics, Clinical & Health, Computer Science, Education, Engineering, Law, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Psychology, and Social Sciences. The rankings in THE World University Rankings by subject are based on the same indicators as the global rankings, only the weight of indicators in the resulting ranking varies across subjects.

In the latest edition of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024 by subject, Palacký University Olomouc is listed among the top 300 in Law and among the top 500 in Life Sciences.

Placings of Palacký University Olomouc in THE World University Rankings 2024 by Subject
Arts and Humanities	501st–600th
Clinical and Health	601st–800th
Computer Science	601st–800th
Education	601st+
Law	251st–300th
Life Sciences	501st–600th
Physical Sciences	601st–800th
Psychology	401st–500th
Social Sciences	601st–800th

QS World University Rankings (QS)

The QS World University Rankings, published by Quacquarelli Symonds, also implemented a methodological enhancement in 2023. The newly introduced metrics are Sustainability, Employment Outcomes, and International Research Network. The QS World University Rankings works with Elsevier’s Scopus database and ranks universities in the nine indicators below.

Indicator	Weight
Academic Reputation	30%
Citations per Faculty	20%
Employer Reputation	15%
Employment Outcomes	5%
Faculty/Student Ratio	10%
International Faculty Ratio	5%
International Research Network (IRN Index)	5%
International Students Ratio	5%
Sustainability (based on QS Sustainability Rankings)	5%

Detailed ranking methodology is available here.

Palacký University Olomouc was listed in the ranking for the first time in 2016th In the most recent ranking, the QS World University Rankings 2025, it ranks 651st to 660th, a slight drop from the previous year when it ranked 631st to 650th. Palacký University performs best in the International Research Network Index (IRN Index), where it is ranked 210th in the world. It also ranks in the top 500 in sustainability and number of foreign academics and researchers.

Rankings of Czech universities in the QS World University Rankings for the last 5 years:

	QS WUR 2021	QS WUR 2022	QS WUR 2023	new methodology QS WUR 2024	new methodology QS WUR 2025
Charles University, Prague	260th	266th	28th8th	248th	246th
Masaryk University, Brno	531st–540th	551st–560th	551st–560th	400th	408th
Czech Technical University in Prague	432nd	403rd	378th	454th	420th
University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague	342nd	373rd	358th	556th	570th
Brno University of Technology	701st–750th	701st–750th	701st–750th	611st–620th	611st–620th
Palacký University Olomouc	591st–600th	601st–650th	651st–700th	631st–640th	651st–660th
Czech University of Life Sciences Prague	801st–1000th	801st–1000th	801st–1000th	701st–710th	711st–720th
Mendel University in Brno	701st–750th	801st–1000th	801st–1000th	901st–950th	851st–900th
University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice	–	–	701st–750th	1001st–1200th	951st–1000th
University of Hradec Králové	–	801st–1000th	801st–1000th	1001st–1200th	1001st–1200th
VSB – Technical University of Ostrava	–	1001st–1200th	1201st–1400th	1001st–1200th	1001st–1200th
Technical University of Liberec	751st–800th	801st–1000th	801st–1000th	1001st–1200th	1201st–1400th
Tomas Bata University in Zlín	–	1001st–1200th	1001st–1200th	1001st–1200th	1201st–1400th
University of Ostrava	–	1001st–1200th	1001st–1200th	1201st–1400th	1201st–1400th
University of Pardubice	801st–1000th	1001st–1200th	1001st–1200th	1001st–1200th	1201st–1400th
University of West Bohemia, Plzeň	–	1001st–1200th	1201st–1400th	1201st–1400th	1201st–1400th

QS World University Rankings: Europe

The QS World University Rankings: Europe was published in 2024 for the second time. It supercedes the QS Emerging Europe & Central Asia (EECA) University Rankings. European universities from countries which are members of the Council of Europe are compared in the rankings on 12 indicators below. The rankings focus on research quality, graduate employability, study and teaching conditions, global engagement, and sustainability.

Indicator	Weight
Academic Reputation	30%
Citations per Paper	10%
Papers per Faculty	5%
Employer Reputation	15%
Employment Outcomes	5%
Faculty/Student Ratio	10%
International Research Network (IRN Index)	5%
International Faculty Ratio	5%
International Student Diversity (nationalities)	5%
Inbound Exchange Student Ratio	2nd5%
Outbound Exchange Student Ratio	2nd5%
Sustainability Score (based on QS Sustainability Rankings)	5%

Detailed ranking methodology is available here.

Palacký University is ranked 214th in the latest edition of the QS World University Rankings: Europe 2025, published in summer 2024, improving its position by 5 places compared to last year. It even ranked 8th in Eastern Europe.

Rankings of Czech universities in the QS World University Rankings: Europe:

	2025
	QS Europe rank
Charles University, Prague	79
Masaryk University, Brno	143
Czech Technical University in Prague	177
Palacký University Olomouc	214
Brno University of Technology	224
Czech University of Life Sciences Prague	253
University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague	296
Mendel University in Brno	355
VSB – Technical University of Ostrava	381
University of Hradec Králové	403
University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice	428
Tomas Bata University in Zlín	445
University of Pardubice	479
University of Ostrava	498
Technical University of Liberec	511–520
University of West Bohemia, Plzeň	551–600
University of Jan Evangelista Purkyně, Ústí nad Labem	601

QS World University Rankings by Subject

In addition to the global rankings, university rankings are also published annually in 55 subjects divided into 5 areas: Arts & Humanities, Engineering & Technology, Life Sciences & Medicine, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences & Management. The QS World University Rankings by Subject are based on 5 indicators: results of international reputation surveys among academics, a similar survey among employers, publication citations, the H–index and the IRN (International Research Network) Index. Each discipline differs in the weighting of each indicator to take into account the specificities of each discipline.
A more detailed description of the methodology for each discipline is available here.
In the latest edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024, Palacký University was ranked in 4 disciplines, with three of them in the Top 500th Olomouc University performs best in Forestry and Agriculture, where it is ranked 251st–300th. Compared to the previous year, it dropped out of the ranking in Physics and Astronomy.

Placings of Palacký University Olomouc in QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024
Agriculture & Forestry	251st–300th
Biological Sciences	401st–450th
Medicine	501st–550th
Chemistry	401st–450th

Best Global Universities Ranking (US News)

The Best Global Universities rankings, published by U.S. News & World Report, originally compared only the best US schools, but in recent years have been ranking universities across the globe. Using the data from the Web of Science database, the final rankings are based on the 13 indicators listed below.

Area	Indicator	Weight
Reputation indicators	Global research reputation	12.5%
Reputation indicators	Regional research reputation	12.5%
Bibliometric indicators	Publications	10%
	Books	2.5%
	Conferences	2.5%
	Normalized citation impact	10%
	Total citations	7.5%
	Number of publications that are among the 10% most cited	12.5%
	Percentage of total publications that are among the 10% most cited	10%
Scientific excellence indicators	International collaboration – relative to country	5%
	International collaboration	5%
	Number of highly cited papers that are among the top 1% most cited in their respective field	5%
	Percentage of total publications that are among the top 1% most highly cited papers	5%

Detailed ranking methodology is available here.

Palacký University Olomouc was ranked in the U.S. News Best Global Universities for the first time in 2014. UP was ranked 671st in the most recent edition of Best Global Universities Rankings 2024–2025.

Rankings of Czech universities in the Best Global Universities for the last 5 years:

	Best Global Universities 2020	Best Global Universities 2021	Best Global Universities 2022	Best Global Universities 2022–2023	Best Global Universities 2024–2025
Charles University, Prague	210	210	218	226	253
Masaryk University, Brno	577	555	568	605	612
Palacký University Olomouc	519	529	568	611	671
Czech University of Life Sciences Prague	1003	1030	1007	930	789
Czech Technical University in Prague	465	516	596	698	888
Brno University of Technology	921	1068	1077	1060	962
University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice	904	941	1024	1013	1021
Mendel University in Brno	1228	1288	1286	1291	1215
University of Hradec Králové	-	-	-	-	1383
University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague	1144	1187	1254	1344	1494
VSB – Technical University of Ostrava	1333	1452	1525	1589	1571
University of West Bohemia, Plzeň	1390	-	1607	1449	1609
Tomáš Baťa University, Zlín	-	-	-	-	1824
University of Ostrava	-	1339	1416	1542	1865
Technical University of Liberec	-	-	-	-	1934
University of Pardubice	1471	-	-	1903	2144
University of Finance and Administration, Prague	-	-	-	-	-

CWUR (The Center for World University Rankings)

The Center for World University Rankings is a consultancy organisation that has been publishing international rankings since 2012. The rankings are primarily based on data from the Thomson Reuters database, work only with available data, do not include university reputation (which plays a major role in other prominent rankings), and do not require universities to provide data. The Center for World University Rankings modified its methodology in 2019–2020 to place equal emphasis on the educational environment and research, now ranking universities based on the four metrics below.

Indicator	Weight
Education quality	25%
Alumni employability	25%
Academic and research staff quality	10%
Total number of research papers	10%
Number of research papers in top-tier journals	10%
Number of research papers in highly-influential journals	10%
Number of highly-cited research papers	10%

Detailed ranking methodology is available here.

Palacký University Olomouc has been listed in the rankings since 2014 when it was ranked 804^th. It has not dropped below this position since then. In the most recent edition of CWUR 2024, UP was ranked 591^st and is thus among the top 3% of universities in the world.

CWTS Leiden Ranking

The Leiden Ranking, produced by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University in the Netherlands, is specific in that it does not present the results of universities as a combination of all indicators, but rather enables the performance of universities to be explored from a diversity of perspectives, with the possibility of adjusting more detailed parameters. Thus, there are several resulting rankings available. The Leiden Ranking uses the Web of Science database and assesses 4 main indicators, which are scientific impact, international collaboration, open access, and gender diversity, both for the university as a whole and in 5 disciplines (Biomedical & Health Sciences, Life & Earth Sciences, Mathematics & Computer Science, Physical Sciences & Engineering, Social Sciences & Humanities).

Detailed ranking methodology is available here.

Sustainability rankings

As the issues of sustainability, social responsibility, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have become more prominent in university strategies and plans in recent years, the rankings have also begun to look at how universities rank in these areas. Palacký University Olomouc is currently involved in three of them (Times Higher Education Impact Ranking, QS World University Rankings: Sustainability, UI GreenMetric World University Rankings).

Palacký University in sustainability rankings

Research at Palacký University

UP in International Rankings

Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)

Global Ranking of Academic Subjects

Sport Science Ranking - Global Ranking of Sport Science Schools and Departments

Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE)

Rankings of Czech universities in the THE World University Rankings for the last 5 years:

World University Rankings by Subject

QS World University Rankings (QS)

QS World University Rankings: Europe

QS World University Rankings by Subject

Best Global Universities Ranking (US News)

CWUR (The Center for World University Rankings)

CWTS Leiden Ranking

Sustainability rankings

Science at UP

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Science Centres

Personalities in Science

Research Centres

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