Brazil has again dominated the QS Latin American university rankings, with a total of 81 institutions in the top 300 and Universidade de Sao Paolo (USP) taking the top spot for the third year in a row. The Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile came in second followed by the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp) in Brazil, Universidad de Los Andes Colombia and the Universidad de Chile.
QS said that the rankings showed the growing importance of Latin HE on the world stage, but that Brazil remained way ahead of the pack.
“With two of the top three universities in the ranking and 11 of the top 30, Brazil‘s domination of the ranking is even more complete than last year,” said John O’Leary of the QS Intelligence Unit. “The size of the country’s higher education system, together with strong recent investment, leaves it well ahead of its rivals.”
“The size of the country’s higher education system, together with strong recent investment, leaves it well ahead of its rivals”
Nineteen countries were represented in the rankings in total, including Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Boliva and Cuba with 50 new institutions included this year – a sign of the growing dynamism of HE in the region.
Brazil’s dominance was pinned to government initiatives such as the Science Without Borders mobility programme, as well as efforts to widen participation in HE at home. However, it has room for improvement, ranking only 41st in the world top 50 for the strength of its higher education system.
Mexico was the second most present country on the table with 50 institutions, led by Universidad de Los Andes Colombia, while 42 Colombian institutions appeared, with eight of its best climbing the list. Argentina also did well with nine universities making the top 50 despite leader Universidad de Buenos Aires dropping one position to 12th place.
Chile fared worse than previous years with 17 of its 30 institutions dropping in the rankings. According to Danny Byrne, QS’s Senior Education Editor, this could be explained by a shortage of public funding in higher education – as reflected by student-led protests across the country in the last few years.
“Faculty/student ratios have deteriorated in relation to the rest of the region, while the turmoil also may be partially responsible for a general decline in the number of employers in the region targeting Chilean graduates,” he said.
Resistance to English-taught programmes represented the biggest obstacle to the competitiveness
QS said that the region’s universities were building their global reputation, but observed that a lack of English and resistance to English-taught programmes represented the biggest obstacle to their competitiveness. It also noted that “the relative stability of this year’s ranking reflects an established hierarchy at the top of the academic tree, making it hard for new institutions to break into the elite cluster”.
Institutions were judged on seven indicators: academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty/student ratio, the proportion of staff with a PhD, research papers per faculty, citations per paper and web presence. Universidade de Sao Paolo was among the top universities in all but two of the seven indicators leading in web presence and employability.
