The UK and North America did very well in the 2012 QS World University Rankings. Russia, China, and continental Europe did not do very well, however.
QS World University Rankings methodology
Rankings of world universities reflect on both the past and the future. You would expect nations with a wealthy history of achievement to build universities that rank high on the list. At the same time, you expect nations with highly ranked universities to produce a better class of graduates -- as a whole -- than those nations with universities that rank low on the list -- or fail to rank altogether.
Following are listed the top 20 in the 2012 rankings:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)United States
#1
100
University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom
#2
99.8
Harvard UniversityUnited States
#3
99.2
UCL (University College London)United Kingdom
#4
98.7
University of OxfordUnited Kingdom
#5
98.6
Imperial College LondonUnited Kingdom
#6
98.3
Yale UniversityUnited States
#7
97.5
University of ChicagoUnited States
#8
96.3
Princeton UniversityUnited States
#9
95.4
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)United States
#10
95.1
Columbia UniversityUnited States
#11
94.7
University of PennsylvaniaUnited States
#12
94.5
ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)Switzerland
#13
92.8
Cornell UniversityUnited States
#14
92.1
Stanford UniversityUnited States
#15
91.7
Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States
#16
91.2
University of MichiganUnited States
#17
91.2
McGill UniversityCanada
#18
90.4
University of TorontoCanada
#19
89.6
Duke UniversityUnited States
#20
89.5
US universities continue to dominate the list, although four of the top six this year are British. American institutions make up 13 of the top 20 and 31 of the top 100 – the same as last year.
There is only one new entrant to the top 20 – the University of Toronto, at No 19.
Continental Europe performs poorly in the table. France has two entries – ENS Paris and the École Polytechnique, also in Paris – in the top 50, and two Swiss universities make the top 30, but there are no German universities in the top 50. _Guardian
Top 200 ranked universities 2012
Brazil and Mexico barely slid into the top 150 with one university apiece. Saudi Arabia managed to land one university at a rank of 197, representing the Arab and muslim worlds. Sub-Saharan Africa, to the surprise of only a few, failed to place.
These rankings represent both the past and the future. It is best not to place too much weight on them, or too little.
Update 15 Sept 12: The 2012 Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities utilises a somewhat different methodology, and thus provides a somewhat differently ranked list. (h/t Dan Kurt in comments) In this list, UK universities were ranked less highly, while Japan and continental Europe did somewhat better.
Further comment 15 Sept 12:
Reviewing the respective methodologies of the QS World University Rankings and the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities, it appears that the Shanghai rankings are based more clearly upon objective criteria. The QS rankings are largely based upon academic reputation rankings derived from opinion survey results. The two rankings contain considerable overlap, but also display significant differences.
I would suggest you check out this ranking from China of the top 500 Universities.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU2012.html
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Dan Kurt
Good reputation is nice but there must some other point in operating an university.
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