U.S. News goes global with college rankings
By Kenneth CorbinConventional wisdom has it that in the 21st century, we live in a global economy.
So perhaps, then, it's time to think about colleges and universities in the worldwide context.
In that spirit, U.S. News Media Group, well known for its domestic rankings of U.S. schools, has offered its fourth annual evaluation of global schools.
Even though the publication cast a wider net, U.S. higher education institutions still crowd the top echelons of the rankings, accounting for six of the top 10 spots, and 13 of the top 20.
But not the top spot, which U.S. News awarded to the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
The worldwide rankings come in response to the increasing tendency for students to think globally as they mull their options for higher education.
"Today's job market is extremely competitive. College graduates are not only competing for jobs with students from their university or country, but they're also competing with students from across the world," Brian Kelly, U.S. News Media Group editor and chief content officer, said in a statement.
"As more students look to attend institutions abroad, we want to provide our readers with resources like the World's Best Universities rankings so they can compare and select the best international schools for their needs, as well as better understand how American institutions perform when compared with those around the world."
U.S. News & World Report's Rankings
The top 10 list is composed exclusively of institutions in the United States and United Kingdom.
Top 10 Colleges & Universities in the World
- University of Cambridge (United Kingdom)
- Harvard University (United States)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (United States)
- Yale University (United States)
- University of Oxford (United Kingdom)
- Imperial College London (United Kingdom)
- University College London (United Kingdom)
- University of Chicago (United States)
- University of Pennsylvania (United States)
- Columbia University (United States)
The Rest of the Top 20 Schools
It wasn't until the list opened up to the top 20 that institutions from Canada and Switzerland crept into the mix:
11. Stanford University (United States)
12. California Institute of Technology (United States)
13. Princeton University (United States)
14. University of Michigan (United States)
15. Cornell University (United States)
16. Johns Hopkins University (United States)
17. McGill University (Canada)
18. ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) (Switzerland)
19. Duke University (United States)
20. University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom)
The highest-ranked school outside of the West was the University of Hong Kong, which checked in at No. 22. The University of Tokyo made the list at No. 25.
The international rankings are based on a different set of criteria than the American college rankings that U.S. News has become so well known for. In evaluating schools worldwide, the media group looked at additional factors including the proportions of international faculty and international students.
The other four factors that comprise the evaluation matrix are academic reputation, employer reputation, ratio of students to faculty and the number of citations per faculty.
The methodology for the rankings was developed by QS Quacquarelli Symonds, a global provider of information on colleges and careers.
In addition to the 400 top global schools, U.S. News also produced two regional lists ranking just the top schools in Asia and Latin America.
The group also compiled numerous lists ranking schools by area of study, running the academic gamut from arts and humanities such as history, literature and philosophy to engineering and technology and life sciences.
About the AuthorKenneth Corbin is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C. He has written on politics, technology and other subjects for more than four years, most recently as the Washington correspondent for InternetNews.com, covering Congress, the White House, the FCC and other regulatory affairs. He can be found on LinkedIn.
