Italy in top 5 for COVID research,Rome Uni best for classics Result of QS World University Rankings 04 Marzo 2021 ROME, MAR 4 - Italy has placed fifth in the world in a ranking of COVID research by QS Quacquarelli Symonds , which looked at 13,883 research programmes by 1,440 universities. The scientific database SCOPUS, created by publishing house Elsevier, was used by QS to gauge the universities' research output. Rome's La Sapienza University, the biggest in Europe, is the best in the world for classics and ancient history, according to the 11th edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject, leapfrogging the University of Oxford which slipped to second.