Universities Weblog

(Source: University of Cambridge)Fans of rankings, rejoice. I recently stumbled upon a site that ranks the world's top 500 universities. That's right—you can now see how the best in the U.S. stack up against the premier institutions from around the globe. The site, sponsored by the Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, even breaks down the top 100 schools in North and Latin America, Europe and Asia.

For the record, here are the world's top 20:

1. Harvard University
2. University of Cambridge
3. Stanford University
4. University of California-Berkeley
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
6. California Institute of Technology
7. Columbia University
8. Princeton University
9. University of Chicago
10. University of Oxford
11. Yale University
12. Cornell University
13. University of California-San Diego
14. University of California-Los Angeles
15. University of Pennsylvania
16. University of Wisconsin-Madison
17. University of Washington
18. University of California-San Francisco
19. Johns Hopkins University
20. Tokyo University

The Institute's methodology rests largely on research output and related rewards, including the following:

– Alumni of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals
– Staff of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals
– Highly cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories
– Articles published in Nature and Science
– Articles in Science citation Index-expanded, Social Science Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index
– Academic performance with respect to the size of an institution

Given the narrow focus of this methodology, the findings are debatable. Like other rankings, this one amounts to a fun exercise. But if nothing else, it does demonstrate America's dominance in research.

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