Two Moroccan universities have made it into the top 1,000 in the 2026 Shanghai Ranking. Hassan II University of Casablanca and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) are both ranked between 901st and 1,000th in the world, according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).
Hassan II University has stayed in the same group for three years. UM6P has entered the overall ranking for the first time.
The two universities share the top national position and are also placed in the same 1-2 group in the regional ranking.
The Shanghai Ranking looks at more than 2,500 universities each year. It uses research and academic data rather than surveys or reputation scores.
The ranking looks at six main areas: Nobel Prize and Fields Medal winners, highly cited researchers, papers published in Nature and Science, research papers in major academic databases and academic performance per staff member.
Similar scores
The two universities have similar scores in several areas.
Hassan II University scored 7.4 for highly cited researchers, 3.0 for Nature and Science papers, 19.5 for indexed publications and 8.8 for performance per staff member.
UM6P scored 7.4, 3.5, 19.8 and 8.9 in the same categories.
Neither university scored points for Nobel Prize or Fields Medal winners among its alumni or staff.
Hassan II University
Hassan II University was founded in Casablanca in 1975. It is a public university and has more than 120,000 students.
Its research covers areas including medicine, biological sciences, chemistry and environmental sciences.
The university ranks between 301st and 400th worldwide for Human Biological Sciences in ShanghaiRanking’s subject rankings.
UM6P
UM6P is a much younger university. It was founded in 2014 in Ben Guerir with support from OCP Group.
The university focuses on science, technology and applied research. It has campuses in Ben Guerir, Rabat and Laâyoune.
Its best result in the subject rankings comes in Mining and Mineral Engineering, where it ranks between 76th and 100th in the world.
It also ranks between 401st and 500th in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Agricultural Sciences.
UM6P has more than 7,200 students, including about 1,300 PhD students, and 379 permanent teachers and researchers.
The university has produced more than 6,600 research papers indexed in major academic databases. About 85% were published in top-quartile journals.
What the ranking measures
The ARWU gives the most weight to research.
Highly cited researchers, Nature and Science papers, and indexed research papers each account for 20% of the final score.
Staff who have won Nobel Prizes or Fields Medals account for another 20%. Alumni awards make up 10%, while academic performance per staff member accounts for the final 10%.
The results place Hassan II University and UM6P among the highest-ranked universities in the country.
But both remain in the 901-1000 group globally, showing the gap between them and the world’s leading universities.
