ROME, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Eight different Italian universities had at least one department ranked among the ten best in the world, according to the latest edition of the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings, two more than in the previous year's edition of the rankings.
Among the top universities in the country are Rome's La Sapienza University, the Polytechnic University of Milan, Bocconi University (also in Milan), and the University of Bologna.
The QS World University Rankings are among the world's most important university rating entries and is the only international university listing to operate with a certification of the International Ranking Expert Group. The QS survey ranks more than 1,000 universities around the world overall, as well as in 48 different academic disciplines.
In the overall ranking, the Polytechnic University of Milan is the highest-ranked Italian university, checking in at No. 149. The top university on the list was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States.
The Department of the Classics and Ancient History at Rome's La Sapienza was ranked the second-best in the world in that category, after ranking first the previous two years. La Sapienza also ranked eighth in the world for its Department of Archaeology.
"La Sapienza is the biggest university in Europe in terms of the size of its student body and it's in Rome, one of the cradles of western civilization," QS' Simona Bizzozero told Xinhua. "It should not be a surprise to anyone that the university excels in these areas."
The Polytechnic University of Milan ranked in the top ten for both its Department of Art and Design and for Architecture. Bocconi University was ranked among the world's ten best schools for Business and Management Studies, and the University of Bologna had 21 disciplines ranked among the top 100 in their category in the world, more than any other Italian university.
According to Luigi Bellesi, a senior official with the socio-economic research institute Censis, rankings like the one produced by QS is important because they help students decide where to study.
"University studies are increasingly looked at as an investment in a young person's future," Bellesi said in an interview. "Any resource that can help make a better choice for that investment is important."
Antonio Uricchio, president of the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes, said ranking will become only more important over time as more and more students study outside their native country.
"There has been a trend that has seen more students go abroad to study," Uricchio told Xinhua. "An Italian student grows up and hears about La Sapienza or the University of Bologna all through school. They know about them. But a foreign student may only find out about these universities through the various rankings."
Bellesi said having so many Italian universities ranked highly in specific disciplines also helps improve the image of the Italian education system in general, though he added that would be more valuable if the Italian economy was able to provide more jobs for the graduates the universities produced.
