Lviv Universities Make It into International Ranking: Who Ended Up Among the Leaders

18 Ukrainian universities have entered the international CWTS Leiden Ranking Open Edition 2026. Among them are three institutions from Lviv. This is reported by reports the publication "Osvita i nauka".

Overall, the ranking covered 3,049 universities from 122 countries around the world. First place among Ukrainian institutions by number of research publications went to Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. For 2021–2024, the ranking took into account 1,217 of its research papers. Of these, 35 belong to the 10% most cited in their respective research fields.

Second place went to the National University "Lviv Polytechnic"; the ranking took into account 928 research publications by its researchers for this period.

Also included in the ranking were Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, which has 446 publications counted, and Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University, with 172 publications.

Overall, the following Ukrainian institutions are represented in the ranking:

• Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv;
• National University "Lviv Polytechnic";
• National Technical University of Ukraine "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute";
• V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University;
• Sumy State University;
• Ivan Franko National University of Lviv;
• National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute";
• National Aviation University;
• National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine;
• Alexander Bogomolets National Medical University;
• Ukrainian State University of Science and Technologies;
• Uzhhorod National University;
• Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University;
• Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University;
• Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University;
• National University "Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic";
• Oles Honchar Dnipro National University;
• State University of Trade and Economics.

What the Leiden Ranking Evaluates

CWTS Leiden Ranking is developed by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands. The ranking assesses the research performance of higher education institutions, including the number of publications, their citation rate, international collaboration, and open science practices.

Unlike rankings that take into account institutions' reputation or employer surveys, the Leiden Ranking is based on bibliometric indicators. Its open version uses the international scientific database OpenAlex.

The ranking covers 1,217 scientific publications of the university for 2021–2024. Of these, 35 belong to the 10% most cited publications in their respective fields. In terms of number of publications, KNU ranked 1562nd in the world and 468th in Europe.

Starting in 2027, the Leiden Ranking will fully switch to the Open Edition format, which is based on OpenAlex open data.

Let us remind you that two Lviv universities entered the top four leaders of the national ranking of higher education institutions. Which other universities made it into the top ten and by what criteria they were evaluated - read in the article.