EXAMINER ARTICLES
EDUCATION
College ranking 2016: Caltech still tops Times Higher Education’s World Ranking
By Bonnie K. Goodman
December 5, 2015, 5:42 PM MST
Times Higher Education (THE) released their 2015/16 World University Rankings on Oct. 1, 2015, where the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) held onto the number one spot. For the past five years, Caltech has topped the World University Rankings. The top 10 saw a lot of movement this year with some preeminent American universities falling lower and some completely dropping out of the top 10. All the while, the top 10 features one university outside of the United States and the United Kingdom, Switzerland’s ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. US universities dominate the top 10 and the ranking list in general.
Some of the major changes to the top 10 are 2015 No. 8 University of California, Berkeley and tied for No. 9 Yale University slip out of the top 10 moving down to 12th and 13th on the list. Oxford University moved up to the No. 2 spot, Stanford moved up one to No. 3, while Cambridge moved up one to fourth place. Rounding out the top five is MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology which moved up one this year.
In a surprise, Harvard, which is the top ranking university in most global rankings, is only No. 6 down from its more reasonable second place post last year. Princeton remains in seventh place, while the Imperial College of London moved up one to No. 8. The two new universities in the top ten are ETH Zurich at No. 9 and the University of Chicago at 10.
The THE World University Rankings expanded this year’s rankings with more universities from more countries. This year they ranked 800 universities, last year they only looked at 429 institutions. The editor of the rankings Phil Baty commented to theUK Daily Mail, “The top 800 list represents just 4% of the world’s higher education institutions, so we congratulate all institutions who have made this year’s list.” THE is also looking at more countries; 29 last year and 70 for this year’s ranking. Among the countries added include, “Indonesia, Ghana, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Latvia, Qatar, and Ukraine.”
Baty explained the ranking’s successful methodology, “The Times Higher Education World University Rankings, now in their 12th year, apply rigorous standards, using tough global benchmarks across all of a global research university’s key missions – teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. The results are trusted by students and their families, academics, university leaders, and governments.”
This year there were 147 US universities in the ranking with 40 just in the top 100, still that six less from last year. The UK had 78 universities in the listing. European universities including those from the UK also saw an increase with 44 in the top 100, nine more universities than last year. The UK had 16 of the universities in the top 100 up five from last year. The majority of the top non-UK European universities comes from Germany and Sweden.
The UK is seeing more universities on the list than last year but is having a harder time competing with European institutions, because of higher education funding cuts, and stricter immigration policies hindering foreign students. Baty expressed, “The United Kingdom is a stand-out performer in this year’s rankings, boasting an impressive 78 institutions overall, with 34 of these sitting in the top 200…. It appears the UK’s position in the rankings has benefited from the fact that the country’s research excellence framework (REF) assessment took place in the middle of the World University Ranking’s period of assessment.”
Asian universities seeing their predominance continue in the THE rankings a trend that began last year. However, there are fewer universities from Japan in the ranking. There are 41 universities from Japan, 37 from China while Korea and Taiwan both see 24 institutions on the list. There are nine universities in Asia in the top 100, down three from the last listing.
The top university in Asia is Japan’s the National University of Singapore. Hebrew University was once again the top university in Israel coming at No. 178. There are six universities from Australasia in the top 100, an increase of one with the top university in the region the University of Melbourne at No. 41 in Australia.
In Canada, the University of Toronto again topped the 25 Canadian universities on the list. The University of Toronto moved up one to take the No. 19 position. The University of British Columbia moved up two spots from 32 to 34, while McGill University moved up one spot to No. 38.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings is an offset of the QS World University Ranking. In 2010, Times Higher Education formed a new partnership with Thomson Reuters in 2010 and created a new methodology. The ranking looks at a university’s “teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.” Thomson Reuters utilizes 13 indicators to determine the results of the list, they are under five “overall indicators; “industry income, internationalism, teaching, research, and citations.”
The annual ranking includes 10 lists covering subject fields, and universities in specific areas in additional to the main World University Rankings, which ranks the top 200 institutions. Subject field lists include; Arts & Humanities, Clinical, Pre-clinical & Health, Engineering & Technology, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, and the Social Sciences. Additionally, THE publishes the 100 Under 50, ranking universities established in the past 50 years, Asia University Rankings, and BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings.
This year Harvard University tops again THE’s World Reputation Rankings, another of the THE lists, which looks at the “top 100 most powerful global university brands.” In second is the University of Cambridge, followed by Oxford in third, with MIT in fourth, and Stanford rounding the top five.
Times Higher Education’s top 10 from their World University Rankings:
- 1 California Institute of Technology, United States
- 2 University of Oxford, United Kingdom
- 3 Stanford University, United States
- 4 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
- 5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States
- 6 Harvard University, United States
- 7 Princeton University, United States
- 8 Imperial College London, United Kingdom
- 9 ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland
- 10 University of Chicago, United States
History Musings... Bonnie K. Goodman 
You must be logged in to post a comment.