Once in a while, I play with statistics that list and rank the world’s major universities. At this time, such a game may be a welcome distraction from the double nightmare of Covid-19 and Trump’s attempted Coup d’Etat.
My
source is the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU2020.html The Academic Ranking of World Universities
(ARWU) was created in 2003. It uses six
indicators, including the number of
Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, number of highly cited researchers,
number of articles published in scholarly journals, number of articles indexed
in Science Citation Index, and per capita performance of a university. More
than 1800 universities are ranked every year and the best 1000 are published. I
don’t know whether their methodology is the best, but they have good
credibility, and at least they can’t be
suspected of pro-America bias.
I last wrote such an article about three years ago. I now offer you an update, with some interesting factoids. All calculations are mine. I hope that you enjoy perusing these. I focus first on the top 100 and then on the top 500 universities of the world.
Table 1. Top Universities of the world. By Region
|
Region |
Top 100 |
101-500 |
Total 500 |
% |
|
Europe |
36 |
147 |
183 |
36.6 |
|
North America |
45 |
108 |
153 |
30.6 |
|
Asia |
11 |
100 |
111 |
22.2 |
|
Australia-New Zea. |
7 |
19 |
26 |
5.2 |
|
Middle East |
1 |
11 |
12 |
2.4 |
|
Latin America |
0 |
9 |
9 |
1.8 |
|
Africa |
0 |
6 |
6 |
1.2 |
|
Anglo Countries |
60 |
157 |
217 |
43.4% |
However, when we compare the number of universities on a per capita basis, a different ranking emerges, as shown in table 2.
Table 2. World’s Top 500 Universities and Population Ratio
|
Countries |
People per University |
|
1-2. Sweden (11
universities), Switzerland (8 universities) |
900,000 - 1 million |
|
3-5. Australia (23
universities), Hong Kong (7 universities), Denmark (5 universities) |
1.1 - 1.2 million |
|
6-8. Austria (7
universities), Estonia (1 university), Netherlands (12 universities) |
1.3 - 1.4 million |
|
9. Israel (6
universities); |
1.5 million |
|
10-12: Belgium (7
universities), Ireland (3 universities), New Zealand (3 universities) |
1.6 million |
|
13-14. Norway (3
universities), Finland (3 universities) |
1.8 million |
|
15-16. United Kingdom
(35 universities), Canada (20 universities)
|
1.9 million |
|
17. USA (133
universities) |
2.5 million |
|
18-19. Germany (32
universities), Singapore (2 universities) |
2.6 - 2.8 million |
|
20-23. Portugal (3
universities), Italy (17 univ.), France (17 univ.), Croatia (1 univ.) |
3.5 - 4 million |
|
24-26. Spain (10
universities), South Korea (11 universities), Taiwan (5 universities) |
4.7 - 4.8 million |
|
27-28 . Serbia (1
university), Saudi Arabia (4 universities) |
7 - 8.4 million |
|
29. Japan (14
universities) |
9 million |
|
30-31. Czechia (1
university), Greece (1 university) |
11 million |
|
32. South Africa (4
universities) |
14.5 million |
|
33-34. Chile (1
university), Poland (2 universities) |
19 million |
|
35. China (70
universities) |
20 million |
|
36-37. Malaysia (1 university),
Brazil (6 universities) |
33 - 35 million |
|
38-39. Argentina (1
university), Russia (3 universities) |
44 - 48 milion |
|
40. Thailand (1
university) |
69.5 million |
|
41-43. Iran, Turkey.,
Egypt (1 university each) |
82-98 million |
|
44. Mexico (1
university) |
126 million |
China and rest of Asia: This
region has a sizable number of universities: 111 among the top 500. China’s
share of this is 70, that of Japan is 14 and South Korea’s is 11. However, on a
per capita basis, the Asian countries’
“university density” remains significantly lower than those of North America
and Western Europe (Except for Hong
Kong).
Now for Some Specifics:
Having cautioned the American
reader not to gloat about the very large
ABSOLUTE number of top universities located in the US, I now turn to an
examination of the United States. Of the world’s top 13 universities, 11 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. Columbia
8. Cal Tech
9. Oxford
10. Univ. of Chicago
11. Yale
12. Cornell
13. UCLA
Of the world’s top 25
universities, 18 are in the US, 4 in the UK and 1 each in France, Switzerland
and Canada.
Three American “leagues” or
“groups” are of special interest to me: (1) The Ivy League,
(2) the University of California and (3)the
Big Ten. I
will also discuss (4) some other universities with which I have been
associated, either as a student or as a faculty member. I will
then provide some information about (5) Europe,
and finally I will point out (6) the areas
and countries of greatest weakness.
I was a professor at UC Riverside (U. of California) and at Penn State (Big Ten), and my PhD is from the Univ. of Minnesota (Big Ten). Also, my daughters graduated from UC Berkeley and UC Davis (U. of California). Alas, we were neither smart enough nor rich enough to become affiliated with the Ivy League. Nevertheless, I will start out with this league, because it is exceedingly prestigious and because it excels above all other institutions of higher learning.
1. The US Ivy League consists of 8 universities, 6 of which are among the world’s top 20:
University: World ranking:
Harvard 1
Princeton 6
Columbia 8
Yale 11
Cornell 12
Univ. of Penn. 19.
2. The University of California has10 campuses, 4 of which are among the world’s top 21, 7 among the world’s top 100:
Campus: World
ranking:
Berkeley 5
UCLA 13
San Diego 18
San Francisco 21
Santa Barbara 49
Irvine 69
Davis 91
3. The Big Ten is a largely Midwestern league of top-notch
universities. It has gradually expanded to 14 members. Here are the Big Ten’s
top 10 universities:
Campus: World ranking:
Michigan 22
Northwestern 30
Wisconsin 31
Minnesota 40
Illinois 45
Maryland 53
Purdue 79
Penn State 101
- 150
Michigan State 101
- 150
Indiana 101
- 150
Together, universities that belong to the Ivy league, the University of California and and the Big Ten account for over one third of the world’s top 50 universities. Add to them a few independent universities such as Chicago (#10 in the world) Johns Hopkins (15), Washington U., St Louis (23), Duke (27), New York University (27), U. of North Carolina (31), Texas (41), Rockefeller (43) and Colorado (44) and you have over half of the world’s top 50 universities.
4. Universities with which I have been affiliated
These universities are
listed by the chronology of my life, and
each is followed by its ranking in the world.
The first 3 are institutions which I attended as a student, the remaining
6 are universities where I taught.
Union College not
listed
University of Amsterdam 101 - 150
University of Minnesota 40
University of Wisconsin 32
Cal State, Sacramento not
listed
Cal State East Bay not
listed
UC Riverside 201
- 300
Penn State 101
- 150
Chapman College not
listed
5. Europe:
The countries of greatest
interest to me are those where I lived - Hungary, France and the Netherlands.
Hungary is a poor country. None of its universities is ranked in the top 500. However, it has five universities ranked between 501 and 1,000.
France’s record is the 7th best in the world: Its best university is Paris-Saclay (ranked 14th in the world). 5 of its universities are ranked among the world’s 100 best, including the venerable Sorbonne (#39). 17 of its universities are among the world’s 500 best.
The Netherlands’ record is excellent. In absolute terms, it ranks 10th in the world (with a total of 13 universities).
In per capita terms, its rank is even better, in 8th
position. Its highest ranked universities are Utrecht (52) and Groningen (69).
4 of its universities rank among the world’s top 100.
The top 500 universities of the world are distributed among 44 countries. What about the rest of the world?
Eastern Europe: This region has only
1 university listed among the world’s
top 100: Moscow State University,
ranked #93. The only other 2 countries which have universities listed
among the top 500 are Poland (2) and
Czechia (1).
Latin America: This continent has no university among the world’s top 100. As we saw, Brazil does have 6 universities among the top 500, and Argentina, Chile and Mexico each have 1.
South Asia: The combined population of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh is nearly one quarter of the world’s. Yet none of these countries have a single university among the world’s top 500
The Middle East: As we saw, this region has 12 universities among the world’s top 500.
Africa: Of the continent’s 54 countries, only 2 have universities among the world’s top 500: Sout
h Africa has 4 and Egypt and Ethiopia each have 1.
The remaining 81 countries of the world have no university listed among the Shanghai ranking.
This article is not about
bragging, or about Eurocentric or
US/Anglo chauvinism. I merely document a
current reality. All of this has to do with
(1) socio-economics and (2) cultural preponderance. Today, English is the world language, as was
French a few hundred years ago and Latin before that. You may call it cultural domination. For now, the
knowledge industry still takes place
mostly in that part of the world which
can most afford it.
Nor does this article
address the growing inequity
embedded in the entire 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.
