The 2022 Shanghai Ranking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) was recently released. The University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) has four subjects listed in the ranking this year – Management, Business Administration, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering – achieving an all-time high record.

Among them, Mechanical Engineering and Electrical and Electronic Engineering made the list for the first time this year, while Management (Top 31) and Business Administration (Top 15) have been listed in the ranking for three years. Compared with other Sino-foreign universities, UNNC is placed second in terms of the number of subjects ranked and leads the way in the ranking performance of Management and Business Administration.

The Shanghai Ranking is widely considered as one of the three most influential university ranking and evaluation institutions in the world. Its 2022 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) covers 54 disciplines and more than 1,800 of 5,000 universities worldwide are listed. The Rankings use a range of objective academic indicators to measure the performance of world universities in relevant subjects, including research output, research influence, international collaboration, research quality, and international academic awards. Being listed in the GRAS demonstrates UNNC’s leading position among global universities in terms of academic excellence and research quality in the subject areas.

In the subjects of Business Administration, UNNC tops the list for research influence among Chinese universities (including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) with a high score of 91.1. In terms of international collaboration, UNNC is placed first among Chinese universities (including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) in the subjects of Management, Mechanical Engineering and Electrical and Electronic Engineering, with high scores of 90.9, 87.8 and 93.1.

According to the Scopus research database, 44.5% of publications from UNNC in 2021 were published in the top 10% journals by CiteScore, and 70.8% were in the top 25% journals. In addition, 19.8% of publications from UNNC were in the top 10% most-cited publications worldwide, and 65.7% involve international collaboration with other global academic institutions. The Field-Weighted Citation Impact was 1.5, unparalleled by the C9 League.

In recent years, UNNC has continued to develop and evolve because of the high-quality education resources of the University of Nottingham. The university has recruited high-level talent from around the world to carry out cutting-edge scientific research, thereby driving its overall discipline development.

At present, UNNC has an advanced and international teaching team, which consists of academic staff from over 70 countries and regions around the world, of which 60% are from overseas. In 2021, 10 UNNC academics appeared on a Stanford University ranking list of the top 2% scientists in the world. The academics shortlisted are from multiple fields such as information systems, industrial engineering, business administration, nanotechnology, and material science. In 2022, UNNC had 12 scholars who were listed in the "Highly Cited Chinese Researchers 2021" released by Elsevier, ranking first among Sino-foreign universities.

Empowered by the world’s top talent, UNNC’s research power has grown dramatically, and made an impact home and abroad. UNNC Power Electronics and Electrical Drive Research Group has developed a high-power rating DC Starter/Generator system for airplane engines with improved efficiency and reduced weight. The world’s first cryogen-free MRI scanner co-developed by UNNC has been granted for listing on market, which lays a solid foundation for the technological advances in multi-pose MRI scanning techniques and addresses the global shortage in helium resources.

Quality research supports teaching excellence. Up to now, the discipline of Engineering in UNNC has hit the top 0.5% in the ESI report, while Social Science has ranked in the top 1% in ESI. Eight engineering and two science undergraduate programmes in the Faculty of Science and Engineering have received international accreditations. Nottingham University Business School China (NUBS China) has also joined the top tier of world business schools that hold EQUIS and AACSB accreditations.

In the future, UNNC will continue to focus on the development of academic subjects, delivering competitive and high-quality international education for Chinese students.