Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University produces a ranking of the top universities annually (since 2003). The methodology used focuses on research (publications) and faculty quality (Fields and Nobel awards and citations). While this seems a very simplistic ranking it still provides some interesting data: highlights from the 2006 rankings of Top 500 Universities worldwide include:
Country representation in the top schools:
| location | Top 101 | % of World Population |
% of World GDP | % of top 500 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| USA | 54 | 4.6% | 28.4% | 33.4% |
| United Kingdom | 10 | 0.9 | 5.1 | 8.6 |
| Japan | 6 | 2.0 | 11.2 | 6.4 |
| Canada | 4 | 0.5 | 2.4 | 8.0 |
| The rest of Europe | 18 | 4.4 | ||
| Australia | 2 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 3.2 |
| Israel | 1 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 1.4 |
Update: see our post on 2007 best research universities results
Top 10 schools:
- Harvard University
- Cambridge University
- Stanford University
- University of California at Berkeley
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT)
- California Institute of Technology
- Columbia University
- Princeton University
- University Chicago
- Oxford University
I find this information interesting (even with the limitations). I would predict (as would most, I would imagine) that China and India will have much greater representation 10-20 years from now (those gains will have to come at the expense of others and I would imagine Europe and the USA will show relative declines).
Newsweek’s ranking of the top 100 global universities includes 8 of the top 10 schools from the Jiao Tong University ranking.
Related:
- Worldwide Science and Engineering Doctoral Degree Data
- USA Under-counting Engineering Graduates
- Basic Science Research Funding
- Engineering Education: Can India overtake China?
- China challenges dominance of USA, Europe and Japan
- America’s Technology Advantage Slipping
- Science and Engineering Innovation Legislation
The class of 2006 by Adrian Wooldridge.
Scientists in America will win more Nobel prizes than those in any other country and produce more high-quality academic articles. America will attract more foreign students than any other country, particularly among the world’s best and brightest.
Chinese Make Bid to Convert Universities Into World’s Best by Howard W. French
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I’ve got to say, I attended Cambridge for 2 years reading Philosophy, and then spent my final year at the University of Chicago. The requirements in the USA seem to be much higher (volume-wise) than in the UK. Maybe it’s my background education in the UK, but it seemed much harder to get along in the US.
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