Universities in the US dominate the 2013-2014 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings with 77 institutions in the top 200, one more than last year. It retained its lead in the global rankings, with the UK remaining next and the Netherlands in third position in terms of number of institutions in the league ranking (12 in the top 200).
Meanwhile, institutions across Europe have slipped in general in terms of stature, giving way to strong gains among universities in Asia lead by Japan, China, South Korea and Singapore.
For the third consecutive year, the California Institute of Technology tops the list followed by Harvard University who rose from fourth place last year to share the second position with Oxford University. Stanford University has slipped from joint second to fourth.
“The power shift from West to East is not as dramatic this year as the US and the UK have both managed to arrest alarming falls at the national level”
There are few changes for the remaining top 10 roster compared to last year. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) finishes the top five followed by Princeton University and University of Cambridge both maintaining their 2013-2012 rankings.
Imperial College London slipped from 8th to 10th, pushed out of position by the University of California Berkeley which rose from 9th to 8th and the University of Chicago up to 9th from 10th.
It was a bad year for European universities in general which fared worse across the board than in previous years.
The highest ranking institution outside of the US and UK remains Switzerland’s ETH Zürich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich but it slipped two places to 14th. The continent’s other top universities including Germany’s University of Munich (which fell out of the top 50) also lost ground.
“The power shift from West to East is not as dramatic this year as the US and the UK have both managed to arrest alarming falls at the national level,” Phil Baty, editor, Times Higher Education Rankings, said.
“But the trend is continuing: the vast majority of continental Europe’s leading institutions have slipped, while those leading the East Asian nations have for the most part risen yet again.”
Japan has five representatives on the list, continuing to be Asia’s higher education powerhouse. The country’s highest ranking institution, Tokyo University, moved up four places to 23rd and be Asia’s highest-ranked institution.
The National University of Singapore was the second-highest ranked Asian institution rising from 29th to 26th and Seoul National University in Korea broke into the top 50 for the first time (44th). China’s Peking University rose one place to 45th while Tsinghua University also jumped two places to joint 50th.
“More Asian institutions are nipping at the heels of the best in the West, increasingly occupying world top 50 places and showing no signs of letting up,” said Baty.
Tokyo University moved up four places to 23rd and be Asia’s highest-ranked institution
The UK remained stable and maintained its position behind the US as the second best higher education nation but representatives say continued investment in the sector is necessary to remain globally competitive.
“Such rankings, however, cannot tell the whole story about the strength of our sector,” added Professor Sir Christopher Snowden, President of Universities UK.
“Universities’ positions will vary from one international table to the next and this is just a small snapshot of all our universities’ activities.”
Released annually, the rankings are based on 13 indicators across five areas of an institution’s core missions: research, teaching, knowledge transfer and international activity.
This year THE has launched an iPhone app to allow users to change the rankings’ official weighting scheme and allow them to create their own personalised list based on their preferences.
In collaboration with US-based Find the Best, THE also enhanced its website using research tools including filters, visual icons, scatterplots and side-by-side comparisons for data on over 150 UK and 1,000 US universities.
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