Harvard University has dropped to third place in the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2025 for the Science category, as Chinese universities continue to dominate the top positions. Zhejiang University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University of China now hold the first and second positions, while the remaining top nine spots are largely occupied by Chinese institutions.
The CWTS Leiden Ranking, produced by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands, evaluates the scientific performance of over 1,500 major universities globally. The ranking first appeared for the 2006–2009 period, during which U.S. universities dominated the top ten, with Harvard University ranked first, followed by the University of Toronto and the University of Michigan.
Over time, the landscape has shifted significantly. Six U.S. universities that were in the top ten during 2006–2009, including the University of Michigan, UCLA, Johns Hopkins University, University of Washington–Seattle, University of Pennsylvania, and Stanford University, are no longer in the top fifteen. Harvard was first overtaken by Zhejiang University in the 2019–2022 ranking period and slipped again to third place in the 2020–2023 rankings, after maintaining first place consistently for over a decade.
The traditional Leiden Ranking relies on data from the Web of Science database and provides detailed insights into the scientific output and performance of universities worldwide.
