The biggest alert is for institutions in Rio de Janeiro; From 2025 to 2026, research performance at UFRJ fell 14 positions in the Center for World University Rankings list
International university rankings have become one of the main tools used to compare higher education institutions on a global scale. In this 1st week of June, the 2026 edition of the one of the main global university rankings. The results show a downward trend for Brazil, with special emphasis on the reduction in income of federal institutions in the State of Rio de Janeiro.
A especially in the search component, which accounts for 40% of the total ranking score.
An analysis of the indicators shows that the main difference between the best positioned Brazilian universities and the institutions that lead the world ranking is not necessarily in scientific production, but above all in the components related to the academic and professional success of their graduates and the historical accumulation of academic prestige.
Seven indicators and four dimensions
The methodology for this ranking combines 7 indicators grouped into 4 main dimensions. Quality of education (25%), measured by the academic success of former laureate students; employability (25%), based on the presence of graduates in leadership positions in the largest companies in the world are some of the items.
In addition to these, there is also the quality of the teaching staff (10%), assessed based on the presence of professors awarded with important international academic distinctions; and research (40%), composed of indicators of scientific production, high-quality publications, scientific influence and impact through citations. The result is an institutional portrait strongly guided by long-term academic and scientific performance metrics.
Among the 3 best placed Brazilian universities (USP, Unicamp and UFRJ), we observed very different profiles.
A It stood out mainly for its research, ranking 82nd worldwide in this indicator, far ahead of its results in Education (549th), Employability (390th) and Teaching Staff (203rd).
A showed a similar pattern, with stronger performance in Research (117th) than in Education (854th), Employability (516th) and Teaching Staff (266th). This profile reflects the consolidation of Unicamp as a university of scientific and technological excellence.
A presents a distinct profile. Although it occupies the 407th position in Research, it achieves relatively better positions in Teaching Staff (176th) and Education (504th), while it ranks 489th in Employability.
These results reflect the historical importance of the former University of Brazil in the formation of scientific, intellectual and academic leaders throughout the 20th century. But they show, compared to USP and Unicamp, a lower performance in research.
Greater competitiveness is in Research
The contrast in the history of evolution of these indicators between the two best placed in the ranking raises the question of to what extent UFRJ has managed to convert its academic tradition and its capacity to train human resources into international scientific competitiveness.
While universities like occupy the first position worldwide in Education, Employability, Faculty and Research, Brazilian institutions present a relatively more competitive performance only in Research.
Harvard’s position is due to indicators associated with the formation of international laureates and the presence of alumni in leadership positions in the largest global companies.
These indicators reflect long-term effects and depend on an even greater critical mass of high-impact scientific production to translate into international recognition.
This distinction is important because not all ranking indicators capture the same temporal dimension of university performance. The Education and Faculty components reflect, to a large extent, the legacy accumulated by the institutions over decades.
And they are based on the success of former students and the international recognition of their professors – an additional challenge for Brazilian universities, which are generally younger and still consolidating.
The Research component is associated with the contemporary capacity for generating knowledge, being constructed based on indicators of scientific production, high-quality publications and citation impact accumulated over approximately a decade.
These indicators, due to their greater weight in the ranking, reflect the scientific performance of universities and their ability to sustain protagonism in the future.
Pay attention to the results of 2026
The 2026 results deserve attention and reflect a trend of recent years. When looking specifically at the research ranking (“Research Rank”), the 6 best-positioned Brazilian universities have, for the most part, lost cumulative positions since 2020.
Accumulated variation in positions of leading Brazilian institutions in the CWUR Research Rank indicator from 2020 to 2026. Positive values indicate gain in positions and negative values indicate loss of positions in the ranking. USP was the only institution to improve its position during the period, while UFRGS remained stable and the other universities lost positions.
From 2025 to 2026, USP fell from 81st to 82nd in the world, Unicamp from 327th to 340th, from 428th to 450th, UFRJ from 393rd to 407th, from the 445th to the 446th and the from 480th to 484th position.
The picture becomes even more expressive when looking at the performance of the main institutions in Rio de Janeiro. From 2025 to 2026, UFRJ dropped 14 positions in the Research item. THE fell 20, from 634th to 654th. THE fell 17, falling from 833rd to 850th position. And the dropped 23 points, going from 938th to 961st.
Although universities in São Paulo also lost positions, the magnitude of the drops was substantially smaller in the leading institutions of that state, with the biggest drop observed at Unesp, which went from 428th to 450th position, and from 860th to 1134th position.
The contrast suggests that the relative weakening of scientific competitiveness was more intense in the science and technology system in Rio de Janeiro than in São Paulo.
Accumulated variation in positions of the main research institutions in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in the CWUR Research Rank indicator from 2020 to 2026. Positive values indicate gain in positions and negative values indicate loss of positions in the ranking. Only USP improved its position in the period. In Rio de Janeiro, the IOC (Instituto Oswaldo Cruz/Fiocruz) showed the smallest variation, while the most important drops occurred at the CBPF (Brazilian Center for Physical Research) and PUC-Rio.
Still, it is difficult to ignore that the relatively weaker performance of Rio’s institutions coincides with a period of strong instability in the state research funding system. While the maintained a trajectory of growth, budgetary predictability and continued support for long-term scientific research, the went through successive institutional changes and periods of uncertainty associated with the state’s fiscal and political context.
Although it is not possible to establish direct causal relationships, international experience suggests that scientific systems depend on institutional continuity, funding predictability and long-term planning to sustain their competitiveness.
The impacts of these changes are difficult to quantify in isolation, but the data suggest that institutions in Rio de Janeiro lost relative scientific competitiveness precisely during a period in which their main national partners operated in more predictable funding environments.
Another important theme, in this context, is the increasing prioritization of innovation policies in the face of general scientific development policies, as if there were a conflict between them.
Science is not an expense, but State policy
More than a discussion about positions in rankings, the CWUR results bring an important reflection on the paths of Brazilian science. The countries that lead scientific production have supported State policies for decades aimed at the continuous strengthening of basic research, applied research and the training of highly qualified human resources.
Innovation does not replace excellent science. It is a consequence of it. Transformative technologies, new medicines, artificial intelligence, biotechnology and energy transition were born from persistent investments in quality research, often long before any foreseeable commercial application.
Brazil won an important victory by guaranteeing the defunding of the . This result is the result of the mobilization of the scientific community and the recognition, by the National Congress, of the strategic importance of science for the country’s development.
However, the existence of resources alone does not guarantee gains in scientific competitiveness. These investments need to effectively strengthen cutting-edge research, scientific infrastructure, scholarship programs and the training of new researchers.
In recent years, the the main manager of FNDCT resources, significantly expanded its operations in programs aimed at innovation, entrepreneurship and interaction with the productive sector.
These are legitimate and fundamental objectives for national development. However, the results observed in international rankings such as the CWUR suggest the need for reflection on the balance between these initiatives and investments aimed at excellent basic scientific research.
The experience of countries that lead knowledge production and technological innovation shows that sustainable innovation does not replace quality science: it emerges from it.
The Brazilian challenge is not to choose between basic research, applied research or innovation. It is understanding that these dimensions are complementary and that the sustainable development of a country depends on the simultaneous strengthening of all of them.
Without a robust scientific base, internationally competitive and capable of training new generations of researchers, it will be difficult to sustain, in the long term, the innovative capacity that the country aims to build.
This text was originally published by on June 3, 2026. The content is free for republication, the source is cited, and has been adapted to the Poder360.
