Romania does not have any university in the top 1,000 of the best higher education institutions in the world, according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities.

The international ranking Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), published on August 15, shows that Romania is missing from the top 1,000 best universities in the world for the fourth consecutive year.

The last Romanian institution included in this ranking was Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, which dropped out of the top in 2023. Romania's absence is all the more notable considering that the ranking includes 22 universities from Central and Eastern Europe, with Poland having seven universities, the Czech Republic five, and Hungary four. Romania, Slovakia, and Latvia are the only EU member states in the region without any university in the top 1,000.

Shanghai Ranking evaluates universities based on several indicators, with a focus on research, which accounts for 40% of the score. The top spots are dominated by American and British universities, with Harvard University in first place, followed by Stanford and MIT.