Blockchain Research Ranking

Blockchain, we are told, is poised to reshape global finance. That may be premature but it is beginning to look as though it will have a significant impact. Recent announcements by China and the United States indicate that blockchain technology will become an important part of international and national financial systems over the next few years.

In 2023 CoinDesk published a ranking of the best international universities for blockchain. The indicators were Scholarly Impact, Campus Blockchain Offerings, Employment and Industry Outcomes, and Academic Reputation. The rankings were led by Hong Kong Polytechnic University followed by the National University of Singapore and the University of Zurich. If we look at the research, the top three are Sun Yat-sen University, Nanyang Technological University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Since there has been no new edition of the CoinDesk ranking, the following ranking has been compiled. It consists only of publications in Scopus and Web of Science between 2020 and 2024. Universities have been ranked according to the number of publications in Scopus indexed journals.

Non-academic institutions and departments and colleges that are not linked to an institution have been excluded. Academic institutions with 100 or more publications in Scopus between 2020 and 2024 are included.

The current ranking shows that Mainland China is clearly the leader for blockchain research and that India, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia have also performed well. Of the top ten universities for Scopus publications, seven are located in Mainland China, one in Hong Kong, one in India, and one in Saudi Arabia. The best American university is the University of Texas at San Antonio, which is in 59^th place.

 

  

Scopus rank	Institution	Country	Scopus Affiliation 2020-2024	WOS 2020-2024 affiliation
1	Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications	China	731	45
2	Chinese Academy of Sciences	China	594	66
3	University of Electronic Science and Technology of China	China	490	43
4	Xidian University	China	458	46
5	SRM Institute of Science and Technology	India	359	20
6	The Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong	350	38
7	Beijing Institute of Technology	China	331	33
8	Beihang University	China	329	19
9	King Saud University	KSA	319	54
10	Tsinghua University	China	315	21
11	University of Chinese Academy of Sciences	China	313	23
12	Vellore Institute of Technology	India	309	48
13	Amity University	India	305	--
14	Sun Yat-Sen University	China	300	20
15	Southeast University	China	290	30
16	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China	287	35
17	Nanyang Technological University	Singapore	279	40
18	Zhejiang University	China	277	24
19	Lovely Professional University	India	276	14
20	Wuhan University	China	270	24
21=	Beijing Jiaotong University	China	262	19
21=	Chandigarh University	India	262	--
23	Beijing University of Technology	China	247	16
24	Chitkara University, Punjab	India	242	--
25	Guangzhou University	China	241	18
26	Graphic Era Deemed to be University	India	234	--
27	Huazhong University of Science and Technology	China	223	24
28	K L Deemed to be University	India	220	--
29	Nanjing University of Post and Telecommunications	China	216	19
30=	King Abdulaziz University	KSA	211	33
30=	Nirma University, Institute of Technology	India	211	38
32	Peking University	China	210	--
33	Nirma University	India	206	38
34=	Shenzhen University	China	205	29
34=	University of Petroleum and Energy Studies	India	205	35
36	UNSW Sydney	Australia	200	42
37	Khalifa University of Science and Technology	UAE	195	19
38	University of Technology Sydney	Australia	193	35
39	Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications	China	192	27
40	Qatar University	Qatar	190	24
41	Northeastern University	China	189	15
42	Symbiosis International (Deemed University)	India	188	17
43	Guilin University of Electronic Technology	China	186	13
44	Deakin University	Australia	184	37
45	Thapar Institute of Engineering Technology	India	181	27
46	Hainan University	China	179	10
47	Xi'an Jiaotong University	China	177	25
48	COMSATS University Islamabad	Pakistan	176	23
49	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong	175	18
50	Tianjin University	China	174	13
51	National University of Defense Technology China	China	173	--
52	Institute of Information Engineering	India	170	--
53	Guangdong University of Technology	China	166	23
54	Uttaranchal University	India	163	--
55	Shandong University	China	162	--
56	Nanjing University of Information Science Technology	China	161	34
57	Galgotias University	India	160	--
58	Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics	China	159	24
59	The University of Texas at San Antonio	USA	157	27
60	Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences	India	156	--
61=	Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet	Norway	153	--
61=	Bina Nusantara University	Indonesia	153	--
63	University College London	UK	151	27
64	East China Normal University	China	150	--
65	RMIT University	Australia	149	24
66=	Qilu University of Technology	China	148	10
66=	Harbin Institute of Technology	China	148	14
68	Hunan University	China	145	--
69=	Nanjing University	China	143	--
69=	Saveetha School of Engineering	India	143	--
71	The University of Sydney	Australia	141	16
72=	Old Dominion University	USA	138	17
72=	Fudan University	China	138	10
74=	University of Science and Technology of China	China	133	10
74=	North China Electric Power University	China	133	--
76	Xi'an Institute of Posts and Telecommunications	China	131	--
77=	Taif University	KSA	129	20
77=	Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai	India	129	28
79	Queensland University of Technology	China	128	14
80=	The University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong SAR	126	10
80=	Nanjing University of Science and Technology	China	126	22
80=	University of Waterloo	Canada	126	--
80=	Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology	India	126	--
84	Monash University	Australia	125	15
85=	University College Dublin	Ireland	123	20
85=	University of Science and Technology Beijing	China	123	10
85=	Chongqing University	China	123	19
88	Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong	122	16
89=	Technische Universität Berlin	Berlin	119	--
89=	National University of Singapore	Singapore	119	23
89=	Shanghai University	China	119	13
92	Fujian Normal University	China	118	10
93	University of Sfax	Tunisia	117	13
94=	Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani	India	116	25
94=	Christ University	India	116	--
96	Anna University	India	114	--
97=	Lebanese American University	Lebanon	113	30
97=	Macau University of Science and Technology	Macau SAR	113	24
99	Asia University	Taiwan	112	17
100	École de Technologie Supérieure	Canada	110	13
101=	University of Johannesburg	South Africa	109	28
101=	South China University of Technology	China	109	10
101=	Graphic Era Hill University	India	109	--
104=	ETH Zürich	Switzerland	108	--
104=	Carlos Alvarez College of Business	USA	108	--
106=	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands	107	21
106=	JAIN (Deemed-to-be University)	India	107	--
106=	Imperial College London	UK	107	14
109=	Università degli Studi di Salerno	Italy	106	10
109=	Sichuan University	China	106	11
109=	Carleton University	Canada	106	20
109=	Technische Universität München	Germany	106	11
109=	Tongji University	China	106	--
109=	Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University	KSA	106	20
115=	Guizhou University	China	105	--
115=	Jazan University	KSA	105	--
117=	Universität Zürich	Switzerland	103	12
117=	Università degli Studi di Cagliari	Italy	103	--
119=	Umm Al-Qura University	KSA	102	14
119=	Technische Universität Wien	Austria	102	--
121=	The University of British Columbia	Canada	101	14
121=	University of Luxembourg	Luxemburg	101	11
121=	Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University	KSA	101	16
124=	International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad	India	100	--
124=	Università di Pisa	Italy	100	--
124=	Institute of Computing Technology Chinese Academy of Sciences	China	100	--
124=	Sharda University	India	100	--

 

 

Search dates

Search in Keyword for blockchain

Scopus 27 February

 

Search in keyword plus for blockchain

WOS 01 march

 

China, AI, and Rankings

Recently we have seen the crumbling of many illusions. It now seems hard to believe but only a few weeks ago we were assured that President Biden was as sharp as a fiddle or as fit as a tack or something. Also, the Russian economy was collapsing under the weight of Western sanctions. Or again, the presidential race was running neck and neck, and probably heading for a decisive Democrat vote, foretold by that state-of-the-art poll from Iowa.

An equally significant illusion was the supremacy of Western, especially Anglophone, science and scholarship. The remarkable growth of Asian research has often been dismissed as imitative and uncreative and anyway much less important than the amazing things Western universities are doing for sustainability and diversity.

The two big UK rankings, THE and QS, highly regarded by governments and media, have been instrumental in the underestimation of Chinese science and the overestimation of that of the West. Oxford is in first place in the THE world rankings and no other, while MIT leads the QS world rankings and no other. Indeed, Leiden Ranking, probably the most respected ranking among actual researchers, has them in 25^th and 91^st place for publications. 

The myopia of the Western rankers has been revealed by recent events in the world of AI. The release of the large language model (LLM) DeepSeek has caused much soul searching among western academics and scientists. It looks as good as Chat GPT and the others, probably better, and, it seems, very much cheaper. There will likely be more to come in the near future. The researchers and developers were mainly “researchers and developers from China’s elite universities, with minimal overseas education,” according to DeepSeek itself, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, Beihang University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Nanjing University. There are some overseas links, Monash, Stanford, Texas, but these are less significant.

Some of the anguish or the excitement may be premature. DeepSeek may inspire another Sputnik moment, although that does seem rather unlikely at the moment, and Western companies and institutions may surge ahead again. Also, I suspect, the cheapness may have been exaggerated. Like its western counterparts, DeepSeek has places that it would prefer not to go to – Tiananmen Square and the Uighurs among others – and that could undermine its validity in the long run.

But it is a remarkable achievement nonetheless and it is yet another example of the emerging technological prowess of the Chinese economy. We have seen China build a network of high-speed railways. Compare that with the infamous Los Angeles to San Francisco railroad. Compare China’s military modernization with the state of European navies and armies.

We might add, compare the steady advance of Chinese universities in the output and quality of research and innovation compared to the stagnation and decline of western academia. The main western rankers, THE and QS, have consistently rated  American and British universities more favourably than those in Asia, especially China. Recently it seems that the two dominant rankers have been doing their best to lend a hand to western universities while holding back those in Asia. THE started their Impact rankings with the intention of allowing universities to show the wonderful things they are doing to promote sustainability, an opportunity that has been seized by some Canadian, Australian, and British universities but totally ignored by China. QS has introduced a new sustainability indicator into its world rankings, in which Chinese universities do not do well.

 

AI Rankings

QS and THE have been especially unobservant about the rise of China in computer science, and more specifically in the field of AI. This is in contrast to those rankings based largely on research and derived from public verifiable data.

There are currently four rankings that focus on AI. QS has a ranking for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and it is very much dominated by Western universities. The top 20 includes 10 US institutions and none from Mainland China, although it does include the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Massachusetts Institute of Technology is in first place and the best Mainland university is Tongji in 36^th = place.

Now let’s look at EduRank, a rather obscure firm, probably located in California, whose methodology might be based on publications, citations and other metrics. Here the top 20 for AI has 15 US universities, with Stanford University in first place. The best performing Chinese university is Tsinghua at 9^th place.  

University Ranking of Academic Performance (URAP) is published by the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. Their most recent  AI ranking has Tsinghua in first place with Carnegie Mellon in 10^th. The top 20 has 12 Mainland universities and only three American.

The US News Best Global Universities ranking for AI is even more emphatic in its assertion of Chinese superiority. Twelve out of the top 20 universities for AI are Mainland Chinese, with Tsinghua at number one. The best US university was Carnegie Mellon University in 29^th  place, well behind a few universities from Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

 

Computer Science Rankings

Turning to the broader field of Computer Science, the THE Computer Science rankings have Oxford in first place, MIT in third, and Peking University in twelfth. Similarly, QS has a Computer Science and Information Systems subject ranking, the most recent edition of which shows MIT first, Oxford fourth, and Tsinghua eleventh.

In contrast, in the National Taiwan University Computer Science Rankings Tsinghua is first, Stanford seventh, and Oxford 171^st (!). According to the Scimago Institutions Rankings for universities, Tsinghua is first for Computer Science,  MIT 9^th,  Oxford 22^nd.  The Iran-based ISC World University Rankings for Computer and Information Sciences place Tsinghua first, MIT 11^th, and Oxford 18^th. In the US News Best Global Universities Computer Science and Engineering ranking Tsinghua is first, MIT fifth, and Oxford 18^th.

In the Shanghai subject rankings MIT is still just ahead of Tsinghua, mainly because of the World Class Output metric which includes international academic awards since 1991.

It seems then that QS, THE, and EduRank have significantly exaggerated the capabilities of elite Western universities in AI and Computer Science generally and underestimated those of Chinese and other Asian schools. It seems ironic that THE and, to a lesser extent, QS are regarded as arbiters of excellence while URAP, Scimago, the National Taiwan University rankings, and even US News are largely ignored.