Before viewing the rankings, let’s put things into perspective. Many Europeans have a chip on their shoulder when it comes to their education system, and they get offended when someone from the United States claims to have a larger one on theirs.
Case and point: On October 1st, an OTR editor declared that Harvard, Columbia and the University of Michigan were the most popular universities on the Internet – and by proxy the World.
To which, one angry, bitter European responded:
please remind yourselves that the United States does not equal the world. For all you know, the most talked about university on the internet is Tsinghua U., or Beijing U., or one of the IITs in India, not to mention Oxford, Cambridge, Heidelberg, and so on. We could do with a little bit more perspective in the US, and a little less self-obsession
Actually, Mr. Angry Euro, our “self-obsession” is completely valid, legitimate and warranted. Even your own magazines agree.
And so, without further ado, here are the top 100 universities in the world, according to the London-based Times:
1 HARVARD University United States
2 YALE University United States
3 University of CAMBRIDGE United Kingdom
4 University of OXFORD United Kingdom
5 CALIFORNIA Institute of Technology (Calt... United States
6 IMPERIAL College London United Kingdom
7 UCL (University College London) United Kingdom
8 University of CHICAGO United States
9 MASSACHUSETTS Institute of Technology (M... United States
10 COLUMBIA University United States
11 University of PENNSYLVANIA United States
12 PRINCETON University United States
13= DUKE University United States
13= JOHNS HOPKINS University United States
15 CORNELL University United States
16 AUSTRALIAN National University Australia
17 STANFORD University United States
18 University of MICHIGAN United States
19 University of TOKYO Japan
20 MCGILL University Canada
21 CARNEGIE MELLON University United States
22 KING'S College London United Kingdom
23 University of EDINBURGH United Kingdom
24 ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of T... Switzerland
25 KYOTO University Japan
26 University of HONG KONG Hong Kong
27 BROWN University United States
28 École Normale Supérieure, PARIS France
29 University of MANCHESTER United Kingdom
30= National University of SINGAPORE(NUS) Singapore
30= University of CALIFORNIA, Los Angeles (U... United States
32 University of BRISTOL United Kingdom
33 NORTHWESTERN University United States
34= ÉCOLE POLYTECHNIQUE France
34= University of BRITISH COLUMBIA Canada
36 University of California, BERKELEY United States
37 The University of SYDNEY Australia
38 The University of MELBOURNE Australia
39 HONG KONG University of Science & Techno... Hong Kong
40 NEW YORK University (NYU) United States
41 University of TORONTO Canada
42 The CHINESE University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
43 University of QUEENSLAND Australia
44 OSAKA University Japan
45 University of NEW SOUTH WALES Australia
46 BOSTON University United States
47 MONASH University Australia
48 University of COPENHAGEN Denmark
49 TRINITY College Dublin Ireland
50= Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de LAUSANNE... Switzerland
50= PEKING University China
50= SEOUL National University Korea, South
53 University of AMSTERDAM Netherlands
54 DARTMOUTH College United States
55 University of WISCONSIN-Madison United States
56 TSINGHUA University China
57 HEIDELBERG Universität Germany
58 University of CALIFORNIA, San Diego United States
59 University of WASHINGTON United States
60 WASHINGTON University in St. Louis United States
61 TOKYO Institute of Technology Japan
62 EMORY University United States
63 UPPSALA University Sweden
64 LEIDEN University Netherlands
65 The University of AUCKLAND New Zealand
66 LONDON School of Economics and Political... United Kingdom
67 UTRECHT University Netherlands
68 University of GENEVA Switzerland
69 University of WARWICK United Kingdom
70 University of TEXAS at Austin United States
71 University of ILLINOIS United States
72 Katholieke Universiteit LEUVEN Belgium
73 University of GLASGOW United Kingdom
74 University of ALBERTA Canada
75 University of BIRMINGHAM United Kingdom
76 University of SHEFFIELD United Kingdom
77 NANYANG Technological University Singapore
78= DELFT University of Technology Netherlands
78= RICE University United States
78= Technische Universität MÜNCHEN Germany
81= University of AARHUS Denmark
81= University of YORK United Kingdom
83= GEORGIA Institute of Technology United States
83= The University of WESTERN AUSTRALIA Australia
83= University of ST ANDREWS United Kingdom
86 University of NOTTINGHAM United Kingdom
87 University of MINNESOTA United States
88 LUND University Sweden
89 University of CALIFORNIA, Davis United States
90 CASE WESTERN RESERVE University United States
91= Université de Montréal Canada
91= University of HELSINKI Finland
93= Hebrew University of JERUSALEM Israel
93= Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Germany
95 KAIST - Korea Advanced Institute of Scie... Korea, South
96 University of VIRGINIA United States
97 University of PITTSBURGH United States
98 University of CALIFORNIA, Santa Barbara United States
99= PURDUE University United States
99= University of SOUTHAMPTON United Kingdom
Thirty-five universities from the United States in the top 100. Thirty-Five.
For those who are mathematically inept, that’s roughly one-third of the entire list.
God bless, America.
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Have you noticed how ALL the top 18 universities are either US or UK universities? Yeah right.
Of course if the ranking had been done by a Chinese, Indian, French or Swedish newspaper it would have been very different. It would have shown that THEIR universities are the best.
To me, all that ranking does, is to show that you own the UK. As if I needed proof of that...
And besides, 40% of Americans can’t find their own country in a world map, and 70% can’t find USA, Canada, and the Pacific Ocean.
So you have a few respectable universities? How come most professors who work there come from Europe, India, China, etc…? Posted 10/11/2008 07:00 AMReply
Would the writer like to state his university? Posted 10/11/2008 12:50 PMReply
This is because business will decide how people think in the future anyway. Too many independent thinkers with a philosophical and historical perspective ask too many questions, and those greedy racey types don't like the questioning.
So this argument is for nothing. Posted 10/11/2008 6:05 PMReply
good one. Posted 10/12/2008 6:45 PMReply
Two of the Top Two are U.S. universities. As are 6 of the Top 10.
Someone referenced population, I reference age. The U.K. is how much older than the U.S.?
Genius #3 - there are 100 schools on the list. There was a tie for 99th.
Lastly, ANY of those schools will give you a great education, except for UCLA which has a crappy football team and ugly chicks. Posted 10/13/2008 8:08 PMReply