Athens, November 5, 2025 – The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) has achieved exceptional international recognition this year. According to the latest Transparent Ranking of Universities by Citations (January 2025), published by the Cybermetrics Lab of Spain’s Superior Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), NKUA ranks 6th among 893 research universities in the European Union (EU) and 1st among 796 universities in Eastern Europe.

Excellence Within the European Union

Based on verified Google Scholar citation data, the ranking places NKUA among the top 1% of all EU universities. With 4.86 million academic citations, NKUA surpasses the leading institutions in France, Italy, and Spain, as well as all universities in the Netherlands and Austria (TABLE 1). Impressively, it also exceeds nearly all German universities—only the Technical University of Munich ranks marginally higher, by about one percent (46,900 citations).

A Leader in Eastern Europe

NKUA is also the top research university in Eastern Europe in terms of academic citations (TABLE 2). More broadly, Greece as a whole has emerged as a regional research leader, with five Greek universities among the top six in Eastern Europe:

By comparison, the leading Russian institution Higher School of Economics has fewer than 1.24 million citations, and Turkey’s top university (Hacettepe University) records around 1.25 million.

The ranking covers a broad definition of Eastern Europe: 27 countries stretching from the Urals to the Czech Republic and from the Baltic to Cyprus, encompassing the European parts of Russia and Kazakhstan, as well as Turkey and the Caucasus. This vast area spans 7.4 million square kilometers and 335 million people – larger than the EU and nearly as populous as the United States.

Symbols of Academic Resilience

“This achievement belongs to our researchers and academic community, who keep NKUA at the forefront of global scholarship,” said NKUA Rector Gerasimos Siasos in a statement to Alfavita.gr. He added that the university’s focus now is on expanding interdisciplinary programs and attracting more international students.

According to NKUA sources, these distinctions reflect long-term investment in research excellence, digital visibility, and global collaboration with leading universities such as Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Exeter, California, and the Sorbonne.

Despite a decade of economic challenges, Greek universities have shown remarkable resilience, commitment to excellence, and sustained scientific progress. Together, these five leading institutions are increasingly described as Greece’s “Ivy League”, with NKUA at the helm.

Greece as an Academic Bridge Between East and West

Greece’s growing academic influence positions it to play a leading role in academic diplomacy, fostering cooperation between East and West in education, science, and culture – and, ultimately, in advancing peace.

This vision echoes the historical legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium), which for a millennium served as a cultural superpower, introducing Europe and Asia to the shared values of civilization. Greeks regard themselves as heirs to this legacy – historically, linguistically, and geographically – and their universities today are reaffirming that role through international engagement and research excellence.

About the Rankings

The Transparent Ranking of Universities by Citations is an initiative of the Cybermetrics Lab, part of the Instituto de Políticas y Bienes Públicos at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IPP–CSIC), Spain. Published twice yearly since 2016, it is internationally recognized for its transparency and reliability. The ranking measures verified citation counts of leading scholars based on their public Google Scholar profiles, providing a clear, data-driven picture of research impact.

The 19th edition (January 2025) includes over 6,300 higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide. Data are derived from the top 310 researcher profiles per institution (filtered by university domain), with the first 20 excluded to avoid outliers.

Source Datasets (January 2025):

• Aguillo, I. F. (2025). Transparent Ranking of Universities by Citations Received by Google Scholar Profiles of Their Top Researchers – 19th Edition. Cybermetrics Lab, CSIC, Madrid. Available here
• Pappas, J. D. (2025). Citation Ranking of Higher Education Institutions in the EU. Zenodo/CERN, Geneva. DOI: 5281/zenodo.17350508
• Pappas, J. D. (2025). Citation Ranking of Research Universities in Eastern Europe. Zenodo/CERN, Geneva. DOI: 5281/zenodo.17388801