University Ranking: Top universities in the world
Best universities in USA, Europe, Asia, Australia
The concept of using certain parameters to list universities in a ranking order began way back in the early 1900s. Back then, they focused on the outcome and the number of eminent men who graduated from specific institutions. The process, over time, graduated to include peer-reviews, and reputation, to the current methodologies that encompass a combination of alumni perspectives, recruiter opinions, academician reviews, research quality etc.
There are many global and regional university ranking bodies, around the world, and each ranking uses its own methodology to stand apart from the others, striving to find the right mixture of factors that best represent the interests of the students.
On an average, as many as nearly 20 million students head to college for their undergraduate studies. Universities reap in an average of nearly $20,000 for tuition fees in public universities and about $45,000 in private universities, in the US alone.
The main purpose of such rankings is to inform students the worthiness of their investment in education, from past record. (A) What are the qualities of the university that would make their education reap benefit for the future? (B) How would they compare this quality between various universities?
Read
- How to get into the top universities in the world for undergraduate studies
- What are the Top Universities in the world – Trivia and more
- Undergraduate College Admissions FAQ
- Common Application, for Undergraduate Admissions in USA, for international students
- How to write Undergraduate College Essays about yourself
How to use Rankings for Undergraduate Studies?
The system of university rankings is not above criticism. There are opponents to the methodologies that rely heavily on research rather than teaching quality. A lot of these methodologies rely on academician and scholar reviews who rate the research output. Even research citations and teacher to student ratio directly measure the attention to research output of a university.
Moreover, smaller institutes are usually at a disadvantage and most students don’t get information about department specific listings. Teaching quality may not be satisfactorily represented in the rankings. Many methodologies are, however, adopting means to counteract these drawbacks.
One can view these rankings as a starting point to refine their research into their choice of universities for pursuing their higher education.
The other factors to consider are location, cost of education, and future education or career goals. To that effect, read the following articles.
- Cheapest countries to study abroad for international students
- Top study abroad countries for Indian students
World University Rankings for 2019 – 2020
There are quite a few well-known university ranking schemes in the internet-verse. Among the many different ranking lists available, certain names pop out as the more popular goto sites for obtaining a quick glimpse of which university stands where, in the general scheme of reputation.
Some of them are – QS World University Rankings, Times Higher Education World University Rankings, US News & World Report’s Best Global University Rankings, Academic Ranking of World Universities compiled by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, Princeton Review, and many more.
There are also region-specific rankings available like the National Institutional Ranking Framework provisioned by the Government of India for ranking higher education institutes in India. Similar rankings are issued by the European Commission for universities under the European Union. Germany, Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland subscribe to the CHE university Rankings and its various flavours.
In this page, we have collated the lists from two of the popular global university rankings – QS World University Rankings and Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Here are their methodologies.
QS World University Rankings: It has been published by Quacquarelli Symonds, since 2004, and is one of the most recognized world university rankings. It uses peer reviewed data from scholars and recruiters, research citations per faculty, faculty to student ratio, and international student population. More on its methodology in the references section below.
Times Higher Education World University Rankings: THE, a British publication, began its journey, in 2004, with QS but broke off in 2009 to publish its own world university rankings with Reuters. Its methodology includes Teaching (learning environment) through reputation survey, staff to student ratio, degrees awarded, and institutional income. Research is measured through publications, research income, citations, and reputation survey. Global impact is measured using international collaborations, and student/staff populations. And finally, industry income forms the basis of quantifying the knowledge transfer.
Asian and Australian Universities in Global University Rankings (Overall)
University | Country | QS World University Ranking (2018) | THE World University Ranking (2018) |
---|---|---|---|
Nanyang Technological University (NTU) | Singapore | 11 | 52 |
National University of Singapore (NUS) | Singapore | 15 | 22 |
Australian National University | Australia | 20 | 48 |
Tsinghua University | China | 25 | 30 |
The University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong | 26 | 40 |
The University of Tokyo | Japan | 28 | 46 |
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology | Hong Kong | 30 | 44 |
Kyoto University | Japan | 36 | 74 |
Seoul National University | South Korea | 36 | 74 |
Peking University | China | 38 | 27 |
Fudan University | China | 40 | 116 |
University of Melbourne | Australia | 41 | 32 |
KAIST Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology | South Korea | 41 | 95 |
The University of New South Wales | Australia | 45 | 85 |
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) | Hong Kong | 46 | 58 |
The University of Queensland | Australia | 47 | 65 |
The University of Sydney | Australia | 50 | 61 |
Tokyo Institute of Technology | Japan | 56 | 251-300 |
Monash University | Australia | 60 | 80 |
Shanghai Jiao Tong University | China | 62 | 188 |
Osaka University | Japan | 63 | 201-250 |
Pohang University of Science and Technology | South Korea | 71 | 137 |
European Universities in Global University Rankings(Overall)
University | Country | QS World University Ranking (2018) | THE World University Ranking (2018) |
---|---|---|---|
University of Cambridge | UK | 5 | 2 |
University of Oxford | UK | 6 | 1 |
University College London | UK | 7 | NA |
Imperial College London | UK | 8 | 8 |
ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich | Switzerland | 10 | 10 |
EcolePolytechniqueFederale de Lausanne | Switzerland | 12 | 38 |
The University of Edinburgh | UK | 23 | 27 |
King’s College London | UK | 23 | 36 |
The University of Manchester | UK | 34 | 54 |
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) | UK | 35 | 25 |
EcoleNormaleSuperieure | France | 43 | 182 |
University of Bristol | UK | 44 | 76 |
Delft University of Technology | Netherlands | 54 | 63 |
The University of Warwick | UK | 57 | 91 |
University of Amsterdam | Netherlands | 58 | 59 |
EcolePolytechnique | France | 59 | 115 |
Technical University of Munich | Germany | 64 | 41 |
University of Glasgow | UK | 65 | 80 |
Ludwig MaximiliansUniversitatMunchen | Germany | 66 | 34 |
RuprechtKarlsUniversitat Heidelberg | Germany | 68 | 45 |
KU Leuven | Belgium | 71 | 47 |
University of Copenhagen | Denmark | 73 | 109 |
University of Zurich | Switzerland | 73 | 136 |
North American Universities in Global University Rankings(Overall)
University | Country | QS World University Ranking (2018) | THE World University Ranking (2018) |
---|---|---|---|
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | USA | 1 | 5 |
Stanford University | USA | 2 | 3 |
Harvard University | USA | 3 | 6 |
California Institute of Technology (Caltech) | USA | 4 | 3 |
University of Chicago | USA | 9 | 9 |
Princeton University | USA | 13 | 7 |
Cornell University | USA | 14 | 19 |
Yale University | USA | 16 | 12 |
Johns Hopkins University | USA | 17 | 13 |
Columbia University | USA | 18 | 14 |
University of Pennsylvania | USA | 19 | 10 |
Duke University | USA | 21 | 17 |
University of Michigan | USA | 21 | 21 |
University of California, Berkeley (UCB) | USA | 27 | 18 |
Northwestern University | USA | 28 | 20 |
University of Toronto | Canada | 31 | 22 |
McGill University | Canada | 32 | 42 |
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | USA | 33 | 15 |
University of California, San Diego (UCSD) | USA | 38 | 31 |
Carnegie Mellon University | USA | 47 | 24 |
University of British Columbia | Canada | 51 | 34 |
New York University (NYU) | USA | 52 | 27 |
Brown University | USA | 53 | 50 |
University of Wisconsin Madison | USA | 55 | 43 |
University of Washington | USA | 61 | 25 |
University of Texas at Austin | USA | 67 | 49 |
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign | USA | 69 | 37 |
Georgia Institute of Technology | USA | 70 | 33 |
Subject Specific University Rankings
Though nearly impossible to list the rankings for each subject, we have reflected the subject specific rankings, here, for Engineering, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, and Life Sciences.
Here is a list of some of the best universities in the following broad subject areas.
Best Universities in the world for Sciences – Natural Sciences
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- University of Cambridge
- Stanford University
- University of Oxford
- Harvard University
- University of California, Berkeley
- ETH Zurich
- The University of Tokyo
- California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
- Imperial College London
Also read List of STEM degree programs in the US
Best Universities in the world for Arts and Humanities
- University of Oxford
- Harvard University
- University of Cambridge
- University of California, Berkeley
- Stanford University
- Yale University
- Princeton University
- The University of Tokyo
- Columbia University
- University College London
Best Universities in the world for Social Sciences
- Harvard University
- London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
- University of Oxford
- University of Cambridge
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Stanford University
- National University of Singapore
- The University of Melbourne
- University of California, Berkeley
- The University of Hong Kong
Best Universities in the world for Engineering and Technology
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Stanford University
- University of Cambridge
- ETH Zurich
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
- Imperial College London
- National University of Singapore
- The University of Tokyo
- University of Oxford
- Tsinghua University
Best Universities in the world for Life Sciences & Medicine
- Harvard University
- University of Cambridge
- University of Oxford
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Johns Hopkins University
- Stanford University
- Karolinska Institute (Sweden)
- University College London
- University of California, Los Angeles
- University of California, San Francisco
Also read
- Global MBA Rankings
- Best Undergraduate Engineering Schools in the World
- Best Undergraduate Business Schools in the World
- Best Business Schools in Europe – France, Germany, UK, Spain, Switzerland, Portugal, Italy and Denmark
- Undergraduate Business School with the best Placement
- Best Undergraduate Business Schools for Finance, Accounting, Investment Banking (Wall Street), Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Consulting
Clearly, there is a lot of drill down that we are unable to proceed with in the capacity of this article. However, if you have sufficiently familiarized yourself with the structure of college rankings, you should be able to figure out your best match using information on particular ranking methodologies and your specific subject choice.
We hope you have a fruitful search and an even more rewarding education journey ahead of you.
Good Luck.
Some related links.
–How to get into Harvard University
–How to get into Yale University
–How to get into Stanford University
–How to get into Columbia University
–How to get into Oxford University
–How to get into Cornell University
–Choice between Harvard/Stanford or Oxford/Cambridge – How would you decide?