Tuesday, September 06, 2016

World's Best Universities In 2016, Part 1

It’s that time of year again: when rival analysts offer their competing versions of the global university rankings.
This year, it’s QS that’s first off the mark, with a table that shows the U.S. consolidating its grip at the top of the rankings, but the emerging threat from Asia is gaining traction.

For the first time since the rankings were compiled in 2004, the U.S. occupies all three top spots. Massachusetts Institute of Technology hangs onto its top ranking, followed by Stanford and Harvard. Along with California Institute of Technology (5th) and Chicago (10th), they ensure that the U.S. has half of the top 10.

Cambridge falls out of the top three for the first time into fourth, with three other U.K. universities in the top 10: Oxford, University College London and Imperial College London. ETH Zurich completes the top 10.

Among the notable climbers are the University of Michigan, up seven to 23, Duke University, which rises five to 24th, Northwestern University, leaping six to 26th.

Altogether, the U.S. has 19 of the top 50 spots.

The U.K. is the big loser. Despite having four universities in the top 10, 38 of its 48 representatives in the top 400 have lost ground.
Although the analysis was carried out before the vote to leave the E.U., the result will intensify fears that universities will be among Brexit’s biggest losers.

But while the picture looks rosy for the U.S., the rankings provide more evidence of the growing challenge from Asia.
Singapore’s two top 20 institutions hold their place, China has three universities in the top 50 for the first time, and of the 74 Asian universities in the top 400, 68% have risen in the rankings.

The top 20 (with last year’s ranking in brackets) are:
1. (1) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (U.S.)
2. (3=) Stanford University (U.S.)
3. (2) Harvard University (U.S.)
4. (3=) Cambridge University (U.K.)
5. (5) California Institute of Technology (U.S.)

6. (6) Oxford University (U.K.)
7. (7) University College London (U.K.)
8. (9) ETH Zurich (Switzerland)
9. (8) Imperial College London (U.K.)
10. (10) University of Chicago (U.S.)
11. (11) Princeton University (U.S.)
12. (12) National University of Singapore (Singapore)
13. (13) Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)
14. (14) Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne (Switzerland)
15. (15) Yale University (U.S.)
16. (17) Cornell University (U.S.)
17. (16) Johns Hopkins University (U.S.)
18. (18) University of Pennsylvania (U.S.)
19. (21) University of Edinburgh (U.K.)
20. (22) Columbia University (U.S.)


According to Ben Sowter, head of research at the QS Intelligence Unit which compiled the rankings, based on surveys and analysis of academic impact across four categories of research, teaching, employability and internationalization, this year’s version emphasized the importance of investment in higher education.

All three of the U.S. universities at the top of the rankings had endowments of more than $10 billion, he said. In contrast, U.K. universities have been squeezed in recent years, with a real-terms cut in government funding.

“This year’s rankings imply that levels of investment are determining who progresses and who regresses,” he said. “Institutions in countries that provide high levels of targeted funding, whether from endowments or from the public purse, are rising.

“On the other hand, Western European nations making or proposing cuts to public research spending are losing ground to their U.S. and Asian counterparts.
“Innovation and investment remain inextricably linked to one another, and Stanford superseding Cambridge is perhaps the highest-profile example of this pattern.”

Times Higher Education, the other big player in the university rankings market, publishes its take on the state of play later this month. And while it too is unlikely to show seismic change, it could provide further evidence of the forces that are slowly shifting the balance of power to the East.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorrison/2016/09/05/the-worlds-best-universities-2016-part-one/#129b2613561d

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