The 2026 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, indicates a modest erosion of Israel’s standing among the world’s leading research institutions, driven mainly by the Technion’s exit from the top 100.
Published in mid-August 2026 by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) assesses more than 2,500 universities globally and ranks the top 1,000. Its methodology rests on transparent, third-party indicators: alumni and faculty Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, Highly Cited Researchers identified by Clarivate, articles in Nature and Science, papers indexed in the Science Citation Index-Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index, and per-capita institutional performance.
Israel’s Standing in the 2026 RankingIsrael is represented by two universities in the global top 100, compared with three the previous year—the first such reduction since 2020:
- Weizmann Institute of Science holds 71st place (unchanged from 2025; earlier positions were 69th in 2024 and 68th in 2023).
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem stands at 89th (one place lower than 88th in 2025; it had reached 81st in 2024).
- Technion – Israel Institute of Technology has moved into the 101–150 group (after placing 97th in 2025, 83rd in 2024 and 79th in 2023).
Further down the list, Tel Aviv University appears in the 151–200 band, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in 401–500, and Bar-Ilan University and the University of Haifa occupy still lower ranges. Altogether, five Israeli institutions feature in the top 500 and seven in the top 1,000.
American universities continue to dominate the upper ranks. Harvard University remains first, followed by Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge and the University of California, Berkeley. The United States accounts for 37 of the top 100 places.
Factors Behind the Relative Decline: China
Israel’s universities still generate research of high international quality, yet they confront intensifying global rivalry, especially from Chinese institutions that receive far larger public commitments to infrastructure, talent recruitment and cross-border partnerships.
Mainland Chinese universities increased their presence from 13 to 16 in the top 100; three of the four newcomers in 2026 were Chinese (Southeast University, Harbin Institute of Technology and Tianjin University). The shift underscores a broader redistribution of research capacity toward Asia.
At the Technion the drop is linked chiefly to the removal of one faculty member from Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researchers list—an indicator that carries substantial weight in the ARWU formula. University representatives stress that the change does not signal any overall weakening of research or teaching quality; the Technion continues to rank strongly in size-adjusted comparisons and in several subject fields.
A second, longer-term pressure is the sustained outflow of highly qualified Israelis. A Tel Aviv University study based on Central Bureau of Statistics data supplies the first comprehensive 2025 figures and shows emigration remaining at historic highs.
The research team—Prof. Itai Ater (Coller School of Management and Economists for Democracy Forum), Prof. Nittai Bergman (School of Economics) and doctoral candidate Doron Zamir (Coller School of Management)—records that 268,930 Israeli citizens spent at least three consecutive months abroad between 2023 and 2025, compared with 183,219 in the corresponding 2013–2015 period.
In 2025 alone the three-month measure registered 90,922 departures, virtually identical to 2024 (91,499) and slightly above 2023 (86,509). All three years mark successive records. Because the three-month series correlates closely (coefficient 0.96) with the conventional twelve-month definition of emigration, the authors estimate that 45,000–50,000 Israelis left for a year or longer in 2025.
The TAU researchers conclude that “the wave of emigration from Israel that began in 2023 continued through 2025 and remains at peak levels.” Prof. Ater observes: “In 2025 we continue to see very troubling numbers of Israelis leaving the country for a significant period of time, adding to the 2023-24 wave of emigration. Taken by themselves, these figures do not yet pose a risk to Israel’s resilience. However, looking ahead—and unless there is a change—there is growing concern that rising emigration from Israel might jeopardize the country’s future security and economy.”
Earlier TAU work had already documented disproportionate departures among physicians, doctoral holders, engineers and high earners—precisely the human capital on which Israel’s research universities and knowledge-intensive industries rely.
While present volumes do not yet endanger macroeconomic stability, the authors warn of possible self-reinforcing dynamics should further political, economic or security shocks occur.
A third constraint is Israel’s limited ability to attract foreign talent. The OECD’s second edition of the Indicators of Talent Attractiveness (released 2025, data through 2023) places Israel 33rd out of 38 member countries overall and groups it among the weakest performers for highly skilled workers, entrepreneurs and international students, alongside Türkiye, Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico and Greece.
For international students the rank is 37th (down from 32nd in 2019). The OECD text states: “A handful of countries consistently rank at the lower end for all migrant profiles, including Türkiye, Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, Greece, and Israel.” Restrictive admission rules, rather than any lack of innovative capacity, are identified as the principal cause.
Taken together, elevated skilled emigration, weak inbound talent attraction, fierce international competition and the natural lag of bibliometric indicators account for the modest softening of Israel’s ARWU position.
Investment Requirements and Structural Reforms Needed to Regain Ground
The combination of ranking slippage, sustained high-skilled emigration and poor talent-attractiveness scores underscores the necessity of both substantially higher public spending on academic research and complementary institutional reforms.
Although Israel continues to lead the world in overall civilian R&D intensity (around 6.3 percent of GDP, driven predominantly by the business sector), the portion devoted to university-based and basic research has fallen by roughly 4 percent over the past decade, while most OECD countries have expanded their academic R&D outlays.
Exact numerical targets for restoring lost ranking places cannot be derived with precision, because ARWU indicators reflect multi-year outputs that respond slowly to funding changes and are also shaped by talent flows and collaboration patterns.
Authoritative Israeli scientific assessments nevertheless provide clear direction.The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities 2025 State of Science report declares that “a significant increase in national investment in basic research is required for Israel to maintain its leading position, let alone enhance it.”
Competitive grants administered chiefly by the Israel Science Foundation have not kept pace with escalating costs in the exact and life sciences, and large-scale research infrastructure—particularly high-performance computing capacity for artificial intelligence—requires major expansion.
The Jacob Nagel Committee on accelerating AI research likewise urged that approximately half of newly created national research infrastructure be reserved for academia and that overall academic research budgets be raised.
Analyses by the Association of University Heads (VERA) and earlier Academy reports confirm that core university budgets have stagnated in real terms relative to OECD peers and that per-researcher resources and infrastructure lag.
Restoring competitiveness against rapidly expanding Asian systems therefore demands a multi-year programme measured in billions of shekels and focused on three priorities: larger individual competitive grants without any reduction in their number; national-scale research facilities (laboratories, shared equipment, computing resources); and attractive return and retention packages for outstanding scientists.
Funding increases alone will not suffice. Drawing on the TAU emigration study, the OECD talent-attractiveness findings, Academy reports and related scholarly literature, five structural reforms stand out:
- Stemming skilled emigration and improving talent attraction
Given the record outflows documented by TAU, existing return programmes such as the Israel Science Foundation’s Beresheet fellowships for outstanding post-doctoral researchers and the OR scheme for senior scholars should be enlarged through combined public and philanthropic resources. Competitive remuneration, modern laboratory start-up packages and protected research time are indispensable. Simultaneously, migration and visa rules must be modernised to reverse Israel’s near-bottom ranking on the OECD Indicators of Talent Attractiveness. More open yet selective pathways for highly skilled workers, entrepreneurs and start-up founders would help offset domestic losses. - Rebalancing higher-education finance and governance
The present Planning and Budgeting Committee formula places heavy weight on external competitive grants. While this has yielded strong European Research Council success rates, it intensifies internal competition and leaves infrastructure and teaching quality under-resourced. A more balanced mix of block grants, performance-linked allocations and larger individual awards would reduce administrative burden and permit longer planning horizons. The State Comptroller has likewise called for dedicated resources to raise teaching standards alongside research excellence. - Creating national research centres
Mission-oriented national institutes, modelled on national laboratories and focused on priority domains such as artificial intelligence, bio-convergence and energy, could absorb returning talent at scale. Capital and operating costs for each advanced laboratory are estimated in the tens of millions of dollars; a national network would represent a strategic public investment. - Reinforcing international partnerships
In light of possible constraints on participation in programmes such as Horizon Europe, bilateral channels with the United States and other partners should be expanded, while domestic funding is increased to cushion any shortfalls. - Reducing bureaucracy and upgrading research infrastructure
Israeli researchers and university leaders repeatedly cite excessive administrative layers, complex approval processes and outdated physical and digital infrastructure as major obstacles to productivity and talent retention. The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities has stressed the need for a leaner, less hierarchical academic system that enables faster decision-making and greater researcher autonomy. At the same time, ageing laboratories, limited high-performance computing capacity and insufficient shared research facilities place Israeli scientists at a disadvantage relative to better-equipped peers abroad. Targeted reforms should therefore streamline regulatory and internal university procedures while channelling significant new resources into modern laboratories, computing clusters, data platforms and collaborative research spaces—measures already flagged as urgent by the Academy, VERA and the Nagel Committee on AI infrastructure.
Scientific evaluations from the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Tel Aviv University researchers and the OECD converge on the same conclusion: Israel must raise public investment in academic basic research and infrastructure substantially while implementing reforms that retain and attract top talent.
Incremental measures will prove inadequate against the scale of Chinese and other competitors’ commitments. Only a coordinated national strategy that treats high-quality human capital, especially olim, and research excellence as strategic assets can restore and secure Israel’s place among the world’s foremost research systems. However, too many olim with PhD are deployed whipping the floors of the universities. They leave Israel, too.
Even with fewer institutions inside the top 100, Israel’s research performance remains remarkable for a country of its population size. The Weizmann Institute and the Hebrew University continue to exemplify sustained scientific excellence on the global stage. However, Israel can do it better.
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