The prestigious Shanghai Ranking of world universities on Tuesday listed two Israeli academic institutions in the world’s top 100, marking an impressive rise since last year.

The Haifa-based Technion — Israel Institute of Technology — was listed as Israel’s premier university for the third year in a row in the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy’s Academic Ranking of World Universities 2018. It ranked 77th, a rise of 16 places from its 93rd placing in last year’s list.

Israel’s first university – The Hebrew University of Jerusalem – celebrating 100 years since the laying of its cornerstone, was ranked 95th. It marked the university’s return to the top-100, just a year after its fifteen-year presence in such elite company had come to an end.

“The trend of improvement compared to last year’s Shanghai ranking is evidence of hard work and uncompromising striving for excellency,” commented Hebrew University President Prof. Asher Cohen.

“We are proud that again, the Hebrew University is recognized as one of the world’s 100 leading universities,” he said, adding that the competition was getting harder every year due to “significant investment” by East Asian countries in academic institutions.

The Technion’s president, Prof. Peretz Lavie, commented that, “We constantly measure ourselves and improve regardless of international rankings, but of course a high place in the Shanghai ranking is an exciting stamp of international recognition of the Technion’s excellence,” he added.

There was no change in the rankings of Israel’s other universities. The Weitzmann Institute of Technology was included in the group of institutions ranked 101-150, the Tel Aviv University was in the group ranked 151-200, and both the Bar-Ilan University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev remained in the group ranked 401-500.

The top-10 rankings remained the same as the 2017 edition of the list, with two Ivy League schools – Harvard and Stanford – taking the top two spots respectively, and the UK’s University of Cambridge placing third.