On September 2, 2020, Times Higher Education released the 2021 World University Rankings, with 1,527 universities from 93 countries and regions on the list. Wenzhou University entered the list for the first time, ranking 801-1000 in the world, 51-75 in the country, and third in the province.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings highlight the changing trends of global higher education and research. 13 performance indicators cover teaching (learning environment), research (quantity, income and reputation), citations (research influence), international outlook (employees, students and research) and industry income (knowledge transfer). This year's ranking analyzed 86 million citations in more than 13.6 million research publications, as well as feedback from 22,000 academics around the world.

The three disciplines of chemistry, materials science, and engineering at Wenzhou University have entered the top 1% of ESI in the world. Among them, chemistry has entered the top 1% of ESI in the world for 6 consecutive years. According to the latest statistics, the university’s natural index ranks 107th in the country and 5th in the province; the number of patent transfers ranks 74th in the country and 5th in key universities in the province. The school ranks 144th in the country in the 2019-2020 "Best University Rankings in China" published by ShanghaiRanking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities; and ranks 159th in the country in the 2019-2020 World University Rankings published by U.S. News.