by Tom Kando
Preface: Once
in a while, I take a look at the University of Shanghai’s Annual Ranking of the World's 800 Major Universities.
You may find this an empty exercise. However, I
enjoy lists, and I have spent my life in
academe. The Shanghai rankings have good credibility. The criteria are
the usual ones - the quality of education, research output, Nobel laureates,
etc There is of course always room for improvement. For now, I present to you
some of the interesting factoids I came across. I hope you enjoy perusing
these. I’ll focus on the top 100, then 200, and (briefly) 500 universities
listed.
Countries and Regions:
Of the top 200 universities, 77 are located in North America. That is almost 39%. Actually, North American preponderance is even more notable among the top 100 universities, of which over half of are in the US and Canada. The United States has 70, or 35%, of the top 200 universities, and 48 of the top one hundred.
In sharp contrast, the entirety of Latin America has one university in this category - the University of Sao Paulo. Vast regions such as Africa and India have zero. Altogether, the five “Anglo” countries of the world - the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and Ireland have 109 of the world’s top 200 universities, = 54.5%. Yup. Cultural preponderance (call it domination, if you wish). Table One shows these facts.
Another issue which these rankings and this brief article don’t even begin to address is the growing inequity embedded in the whole US and international university system: By and large, the world’s top universities are for the rich, and the privileged. They represent the elite, and the trend is getting worse. But this subject is for another day.
Furthermore, when I point out that India, with a sixth of the world’ population, has nearly zero universities among the world’s major institutions of higher education, I must acknowledge a comment made to me recently by an Indian-American friend: What about the massive brain drain of Indian scientists to the UK and to the US over the past century? In fields such as astronomy and quantum physics, Indians have excelled for generations. It’s just that they have been part of a huge exodus benefiting the recipient countries.
Finally, the most devastating argument against the “reification” of the Shanghai rankings - which is, I suppose, what this article does:
These universities represent one type of knowledge and intelligence, namely western positivistic science.
However, there are many forms of intelligence. There is also knowledge that is more holistic, knowledge that understands the mind, thought and consciousness in a more spiritual but equally (or more) valid way. In that universe, India (and other cultures) have much to teach the West.
I began to read the works of Krishnamurti when I was in graduate school. My friend and later colleague Robi Chakravorti, originally from Calcutta, turned me on to this work. There is a vast body of such wisdom in non-Western cultures, a wisdom of which I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface.
The Shanghai survey should absolutely not be viewed as showing some sort of “distribution of intelligence around the globe.” The West’s forte has been the analytical-positivist paradigm, buttressed by NSF grant money and practiced with different levels of expertise at universities from Harvard to Sac. State. But this is only one paradigm - one whose inherent flaws are in fact beginning to show, as it bears no small responsibility for the incipient destruction of the planet. “Modernity” and the West may in fact suffer from a deficit of wisdom compared to some non-Western cultures such as India. The pursuit of truth takes many different forms and methodologies. Perhaps this realization unravels and renders meaningless any such lists as the Shanghai rankings.
© Tom Kando 2018;All Rights Reserved
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Countries and Regions:
Of the top 200 universities, 77 are located in North America. That is almost 39%. Actually, North American preponderance is even more notable among the top 100 universities, of which over half of are in the US and Canada. The United States has 70, or 35%, of the top 200 universities, and 48 of the top one hundred.
In sharp contrast, the entirety of Latin America has one university in this category - the University of Sao Paulo. Vast regions such as Africa and India have zero. Altogether, the five “Anglo” countries of the world - the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and Ireland have 109 of the world’s top 200 universities, = 54.5%. Yup. Cultural preponderance (call it domination, if you wish). Table One shows these facts.
Table
1. Top 200 Universities of the world, by Continent/Region.
Region
|
Top 100
|
101-200
|
Top 200
|
% of top 200
|
North America
|
52
|
25
|
77
|
38.5%
|
Europe
|
35
|
47
|
82
|
40%
|
Australia
|
6
|
4
|
10
|
5%
|
Asia
|
6
|
18
|
24
|
12%
|
Middle East
|
1
|
5
|
6
|
3%
|
Latin America
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
.5%
|
Africa
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0%
|
India
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0%
|
total
|
100
|
100
|
200
|
100%
|
Anglo countries
|
67
|
42
|
109
|
54.5%
|
However,
when we compare the number of universities in each country and take population
into account, the ranking that emerges is quite different. For this, I have
included the world’s top 500 universities, as shown in table 2.
Table
2. World’s Top 500 Universities and Population Ratio
Countries
|
People per University
|
1. Iceland (1 university)
|
330,000
|
2. Sweden (1 university)
|
900,000
|
3-7. Finland, Switzerland,
Estonia, Denmark, Australia (5,8,1,5,23 universities)
|
1 million
|
8-9. New Zealand, Canada (4,17
universities)
|
1.2 million
|
10-14. Holland, Israel,
Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany 12,6,7, 38, 47 universities)
|
1.4 - 1.8 million
|
15-19. Slovenia, Austria,
Portugal, Ireland, Norway (1,4,5,3,3 universities)
|
2 million
|
20. USA (135 universities)
|
2.5 million
|
21-22. France, Taiwan (20, 7
universities)
|
3.3 - 3.4 million
|
23-24. Italy, Greece (16, 3
universities)
|
3.9 - 4 million
|
25-26. Spain, South Korea (11,
12 universities)
|
4.3 - 4.5 million
|
27-29. Singapore, Serbia,
Japan (2,1, 17 universities)
|
6 - 7.5 million
|
30-33. Saudi Arabia, Chile,
South Africa, Czech Republic (4, 2, 5, 1 universities)
|
8-11 million
|
34-35. Malaysia, Poland (2
universities each)
|
16-19 million
|
36. China, incl. Hong Kong
((50 universities)
|
27 million
|
37. Brazil (6 universities)
|
37 million
|
38-40. Iran, Argentina, Russia
(2,1 3 universities)
|
40-48 million
|
41. Thailand (1 university)
|
69 million
|
42-43. Turkey, Egypt (1
university each)
|
80-96 million
|
44. Mexico (1 university)
|
128 million
|
45. India (1 university)
|
1,324 million
|
Thus,
while in absolute numbers no country approaches the United States, which
has 135 of the world’s top 500
universities, relative to population the US ranks only #20.
The
countries that do “best” in this ranking are: all of Scandinavia, Switzerland,
Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, the Benelux, the United Kingdom, Germany
and Austria, Israel.
And
if you look at Table 1 again, you’ll see that
the “density” of top universities in(Western) Europe and in Australia is
at least equal to, or exceeds that of the United States.
Now
for Some Individual Universities:
Having
cautioned the (American) reader not to gloat too much as a result of the very
large ABSOLUTE number of top universities located in the US, I now return to an
examination of the United States:
Of
the world’s top 12 universities, 10 are
in the US and the remaining 2 are in the
United Kingdom. They are the usual
suspects:
1.
Harvard
2.
Stanford
3.
Cambridge
4.
MIT
5.
UC Berkeley
6.
Princeton
7.
Oxford
8.
Columbia
9.
Cal Tech
10.
Univ. of Chicago
11.
Yale
12.
UCLA
Of
the world’s top 20, sixteen are in the
US, three in the UK and one in
Switzerland.
Consider
the US Ivy League. It consists of 8
universities, 6 of which are among
the world’s top 21:
University: World
ranking:
Harvard 1
Princeton 6
Columbia 8
Yale 11
Cornell 14
Univ.
of Penn. 17
Brown #101-150
Dartmouth #200-300
Look
now at the University of California: It has10 campuses, 4 of them among the
world’s top 21, eight among the world’s
top 100:
Campus: World
ranking:
Berkeley 5
UCLA 12
San
Diego 15
San
Francisco 21
Santa
Barbara 45
Irvine 64
Davis 85
Santa
Cruz 98
Riverside #150-200
Merced (new campus) #700-800
California
and the Ivy League ( plus a few independents such as NYU)
account for more than one third of the world’s top 50 universities.
Let
me add a special commendation for the University of California and
especially UC Berkeley: Despite the
relentless bloodletting of the state’s
financial support in recent decades, UC
Berkeley remains THE number one PUBLIC university in the world. Of all the UC
campuses, only Riverside and the brand-new Merced campus fail to make the
world’s top 100. It is no coincidence that Silicon Valley - Apple, Google,
Facebook, Twitter and Amazon - as well
as other avant-garde companies such as Uber and Tesla are Californian.
Some
other Universities of personal interest to me:
Here
are some of the institutions with which I have been affiliated, either as a
student or as a professor (in chronological order): Union College, the
University of Amsterdam, the University of Minnesota, the University of
Wisconsin, Boston University, Cal State Sacramento, Cal State East Bay, UC
Riverside, Penn State, Chapman College, and a few more.
Here
are these institutions’ world rankings:
Union
College not listed
University
of Amsterdam #101-150
University
of Minnesota: #34
University
of Wisconsin: #28
Boston
University: #80
Cal
State, Sacramento: not listed
Cal
State East Bay not listed
UC
Riverside: #150-200
Penn
State: #85
Chapman
College: not listed
Of
course, the California State
University is a teaching-oriented institution with little research going on. Among its 23 campuses, only one is ranked by
the Shanghai survey - San Diego State, ranked among #501-#600.
Here
are a few other universities of personal interest to me:
University
of Indiana: ranked among #101-150
Michigan
State: #101-150: Some of my colleagues got their PhD at these universities.
Nebraska:
#151-200: My wife spent part of her childhood in that state.
Alabama,
main campus: among #601-700: So much for football. National football champion,
and a mediocre university!
Europe:
I am puzzled by
the low ranking given to Paris’ Sorbonne
University: Among #701-800. What happened?
It
is said that Italy’s Padua University is the oldest one in the world. It is
currently ranked among #151-#200. And so is Italy’s best university, that of
Rome, also ranked among #151-#200.
Eastern
Europe: Only 1 among the top 100: The University of Moscow, ranked #93.
Hungary’s best: Eotvos Lorand (University of Budapest):
ranked among #500-#600. Then, Hungary
has 3 more universities ranked among #500-#800.
Among
the top 500:
India:
1, namely the Indian Institute of Science, ranked among #300-#400. Then, India has another 6 universities ranked among #600-800.
Mexico:
1, namely the National Autonomous University of Mexico, ranked among #200-300.
Then, Mexico has 1 more university
ranked among #500-600
Conclusion:
You
may have gotten huffy about this piece. As if it was about bragging, or
US/Anglo chauvinism, or whatever. Nothing could be further from my intention. I
am documenting a current reality. All of this has to do with two things: (1) socio-economics
and (2) cultural preponderance. Today,
English is the world language, as was French (the Lingua Franca) a few
hundred years ago, and Latin before that. Call it cultural domination if you
prefer. Nothing is forever. The knowledge industry still takes place preponderantly in that part of the world
which can most afford it. Simple.
Another issue which these rankings and this brief article don’t even begin to address is the growing inequity embedded in the whole US and international university system: By and large, the world’s top universities are for the rich, and the privileged. They represent the elite, and the trend is getting worse. But this subject is for another day.
Furthermore, when I point out that India, with a sixth of the world’ population, has nearly zero universities among the world’s major institutions of higher education, I must acknowledge a comment made to me recently by an Indian-American friend: What about the massive brain drain of Indian scientists to the UK and to the US over the past century? In fields such as astronomy and quantum physics, Indians have excelled for generations. It’s just that they have been part of a huge exodus benefiting the recipient countries.
Finally, the most devastating argument against the “reification” of the Shanghai rankings - which is, I suppose, what this article does:
These universities represent one type of knowledge and intelligence, namely western positivistic science.
However, there are many forms of intelligence. There is also knowledge that is more holistic, knowledge that understands the mind, thought and consciousness in a more spiritual but equally (or more) valid way. In that universe, India (and other cultures) have much to teach the West.
I began to read the works of Krishnamurti when I was in graduate school. My friend and later colleague Robi Chakravorti, originally from Calcutta, turned me on to this work. There is a vast body of such wisdom in non-Western cultures, a wisdom of which I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface.
The Shanghai survey should absolutely not be viewed as showing some sort of “distribution of intelligence around the globe.” The West’s forte has been the analytical-positivist paradigm, buttressed by NSF grant money and practiced with different levels of expertise at universities from Harvard to Sac. State. But this is only one paradigm - one whose inherent flaws are in fact beginning to show, as it bears no small responsibility for the incipient destruction of the planet. “Modernity” and the West may in fact suffer from a deficit of wisdom compared to some non-Western cultures such as India. The pursuit of truth takes many different forms and methodologies. Perhaps this realization unravels and renders meaningless any such lists as the Shanghai rankings.
