As top university in Italy, and also - for the first time ever for an Italian university - in the top 100 of the world's academic standings, the Politecnico di Milano is the big surprise this year in the QS World University Rankings, one of the most authoritative indexes in the world.
For the fourteenth consecutive year the Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston is the best university on the planet, followed by Imperial College London and Stanford (USA), which gains three positions.
Fourth is the British Oxford, while in fifth place is the American Harvard, a protagonist in the last few weeks of a very tough clash with President Donald Trump.
The report, which considers over 1500 universities of 106 university systems in the world, also records the growth of Asian universities (the Nus of Singapore is eighth, Hong Kong eleventh and Beijing fourteenth), but reserves a big surprise at the bottom of the top 100, with the best placement ever for an Italian university.
Thanks to a leap of 17 positions, the Polimi Milan Polytechnic therefore enters history, driven by improvements in 'employer reputation', 'academic reputation' and 'employment outcomes'.
