NZ claims two places in list of dynamic young universities

UNDER STRICT EMBARGO UNTIL:
21.00 IN LONDON, UK (BST or GMT+1) ON WEDNESDAY 30 APRIL 2014
08:00 IN WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND (NZST) ON THURSDAY 1 MAY 2014

PUBLICATION OF THE THIRD ANNUAL ‘TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION 100 UNDER 50’ RANKING
- New Zealand claims two places in the hot list of the world’s dynamic young universities -

East Asian institutions continue to lead the 100 Under 50, with universities from South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore claiming top-five positions

South Korea’s Postech tops the global ranking for the third year in a row, while domestic peer KAIST holds on to third place

Twenty-nine countries/regions are represented in the table of rising global higher education stars, providing unique insights into the nations poised to challenge traditional Anglo-American dominance

The UK and Australia jointly have the most representatives on this “horizon-scanning” list, with 14 institutions each (the UK down from 18 last year, Australia up from 13), while the US has only eight

India joins the 100 Under 50 for the first time

Eight nations are represented in the top 10, including Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, the UK and the US

Strong performers in the top 100 include Spain (seven representatives), France (six), Germany (six), Canada (five) and Taiwan (four)

Hong Kong, Sweden, the Republic of Ireland and Portugal have three representatives each

Brazil has one top 100 institution, but there’s no room in the rankings for mainland China or Russia

Saudi Arabia and Iran also make the table

SEE BELOW FOR THE FOLLOWING:
• ANALYSIS AND KEY FACTS
• QUOTES FROM PHIL BATY, EDITOR, TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION RANKINGS
• FULL TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION 100 UNDER 50 RESULTS
• COUNTRY REPRESENTATION IN WORLD TOP 100
•
Times Higher Education magazine today publishes the Times Higher Education 100 Under 50 2014 – a bespoke evaluation of the world’s top 100 universities under 50 years of age, powered by data from Thomson Reuters.

The ranking looks to the future by examining a new breed of global universities – those that have managed to join the world elite in a matter of decades rather than centuries, and those with the potential to become the next generation’s Harvard or Oxford.

The list also shows us which nations could challenge the US and the UK as future higher education powerhouses.
The THE 100 Under 50 2014 uses the same comprehensive list of 13 performance indicators that underpin the prestigious THE World University Rankings, but employs a specially recalibrated methodology (developed in consultation with experts) to better capture the characteristics of young institutions.
For the third year in a row, the ranking is headed by South Korea’s Pohang University of Science and Technology (Postech), while its national rival, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), holds on to the third spot it gained last year.
Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne retains second position.

East Asia’s dominance at the top of the table increases this year. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology stays in fourth, while Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University moves up to fifth from eighth.

The US’ top-ranked institution, the University of California, Irvine, falls to seventh.

The top 10 includes representatives from eight countries. The Netherlands’ Maastricht University holds on to sixth; France’s Université Paris-Sud advances to eighth spot (up from 10th), while Université Pierre et Marie Curie stays in ninth; and the final top 10 position is taken by the UK’s Lancaster University.

Unlike the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, which examine institutional performance irrespective of history and heritage, the 100 Under 50 is designed to be dynamic and forward-looking, so only universities founded in 1964 or later are listed. This means several institutions have fallen out of the list this year because of their 1963 foundation date, including the University of York (seventh last year), the Chinese University of Hong Kong (12th in 2013) and the University of East Anglia (16th).

The concentration of “plate-glass universities” established in the UK in the early 1960s has led to a steep decline in the country’s representation on the 100 Under 50 this year. It now has 14 institutions, compared with 18 last year and 20 in 2012. The highest placed is Lancaster University, which climbs from 14th to 10th, followed by the University of Warwick (up one place to 12th).

In terms of national strength, Australia now matches the UK, with 14 representatives in the table. Its top-ranked institution is the University of Newcastle, which jumps 12 places to 28th, overtaking in the process the Queensland University of Technology, which slips from joint 26th to joint 31st. Third spot is taken by the University of Wollongong (33rd, up from 43rd), followed by Macquarie University (up two places to joint 34th). The University of Western Sydney enters the table in joint 87th.

Australia’s representatives were founded over a more diverse time frame than their UK counterparts, with institutions established in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s making the table. The youngest is the University of South Australia (joint 49th), created through a merger in 1991.

New Zealand has two representatives, both founded in 1964 (and therefore ineligible for next year’s ranking): the University of Waikato (up to joint 44th from 46th) and Massey University (down nine places to 90th).

While it dominates the traditional university rankings, the US has only eight institutions in the 100 Under 50 – the same number as last year.

The University of California, Irvine is best placed, although it has slipped from fifth in 2013 to seventh this year. UC Santa Cruz is static in 11th.

Overall, 29 countries or regions feature in the list, compared with 28 last year.

Asia again makes an impressive showing in the rankings, bolstered by India’s inclusion.

The top Asian nation in terms of numbers is Taiwan, which has four representatives (down from five), led by the National Sun Yat-Sen University in 40th.

Despite losing an institution (the Chinese University of Hong Kong) as a consequence of age, Hong Kong still has three top 100 institutions – all of them 30 or under, and all in the top 30. Its best performer, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (1991), retains fourth place. The City University of Hong Kong (1984) moves up one position to joint 17th, while Hong Kong Polytechnic University (1994) rises four places to 30th.

South Korea may have only two top 100 representatives, but it is a stand-out performer by virtue of their positions: Postech is first and KAIST third.

Singapore has only a single representative – Nanyang Technological University in fifth – but it is a similarly exciting prospect.

Bringing up the Asian rear is Japan, with a single player, albeit a top 50 performer: the University of Tsukuba, which creeps up from joint 49th to joint 44th.

South America has just one representative: Brazil’s State University of Campinas (1966), which falls from 28th to joint 37th.

The Times Higher Education 100 Under 50 is part of the portfolio of university ranking systems that has established THE as the world’s most respected and widely referenced provider of comparative university performance data.

Key facts

• There are 29 countries/regions in the list – one more than last year, with the addition of India
• Eight countries are represented in the top 10: South Korea, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Netherlands, the US, France and the UK
• The youngest institution in the list is Austria’s Medical University of Vienna, which was founded in its current form in 2004
• Of the large developing “BRICS” economies, Russia and mainland China do not have a single university in the 100 Under 50, while India and Brazil have one each
• The US has only eight representatives in the table, compared with 46 in the World Reputation Rankings
• Seven universities in the top 100 were founded in 1964 (three from the UK, two from New Zealand and one from Australia and Canada), so will fall out of next year’s rankings as a result of age

Comments

Phil Baty, rankings editor, Times Higher Education, says:

New Zealand

“New Zealand has two institutions in the table, which is good news, but both will be 51 next year and therefore excluded from consideration. So the table should serve as a warning: it is full of younger and higher-placed institutions from strengthening economies that have focused resources on building world-class universities. New Zealand, take note: competition is only going to intensify as more nations and institutions join the race.”

General

“The academy’s traditional, ancient elite should be warned – many of the exciting young universities on this forward-looking list do not see their youth as a disadvantage in the global knowledge economy. While they may not have had centuries to accumulate wealth and cannot draw on generations of alumni and rich traditions of scholarship to drive their reputations, they are free from the burdens of history: free to be more agile, lean, flexible and risk-taking, giving them an advantage in a rapidly changing global marketplace; free to offer innovative teaching and focus their research on niche, high-impact areas.

“The Times Higher Education 100 Under 50 shows clearly that exciting new powers are emerging in the global academy and the old guard cannot afford to rest on their laurels.

“The data also prove that nations can in a matter of years, with the right support and vision, create world-class universities to compete with traditional institutions that have had many centuries to develop. The ancient seats of learning are vulnerable to new competitors as never before: the race for future dominance in higher education and research is wide open.”

Results tables

THE TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION 100 UNDER 50 2014: FULL TABLE
Copyright Times Higher Education 2014
If reproducing this table in whole or part, you MUST include a link to http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/

THE TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION 100 UNDER 50 2014: STATE OF THE NATIONS – NUMBER OF REPRESENTATIVES FROM EACH COUNTRY IN THE TOP 100
Copyright Times Higher Education 2014
If reproducing this table in whole or part, you MUST include a link to http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/

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Notes to editors

Methodology key facts

• Foundation dates: if an institution was purpose-built as a university, in general the foundation date shall be the year it was founded. If the institution has changed status from another type of body, the foundation date in general shall be taken to be the year the institution was given degree-awarding powers
• Fifty million citations analysed and compared with the world average from the same field
• World’s largest academic reputation survey (10,500 academics)
• Thirteen indicators across five areas – research, teaching, knowledge transfer and international activity – were taken into account. They are:
•
Industry income – innovation
1. Research income from industry/academic staff

Teaching – the learning environment
2. Reputation survey – teaching
3. Staff-to-student ratio
4. PhDs awarded/undergraduate degrees awarded
5. PhDs awarded/academic staff
6. Institutional income/academic staff

Citations – research influence
7. Citation impact (normalised average citations per paper)

Research – volume, income and reputation
8. Reputation survey – research
9. Research income/academic staff
10. Scholarly papers/(academic and research staff)

International outlook – staff, students and research
11. International students/total students
12. International academic staff/total academic staff
13. Scholarly papers with one or more international co-authors/total scholarly papers

Terminology and intellectual property

• The full description of the tables is the “Times Higher Education 100 Under 50 2014”
• Data for the ranking were provided by Thomson Reuters from its Global Institutional Profiles project, an ongoing multistage process to collect and validate factual data about academic institutional performance across a variety of aspects and multiple disciplines. http://science.thomsonreuters.com/globalprofilesproject/
• Any publication of the “Times Higher Education 100 Under 50 2014” tables (in full or part) must include full attribution to “Times Higher Education with data supplied by Thomson Reuters”
• Please include the following link when publishing the “Times Higher Education 100 Under 50” tables (in full or part): http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/ or www.thewur.com
•
About Times Higher Education magazine

Times Higher Education is the world’s most authoritative source of information about higher education. Designed specifically for professional people working in higher education and research, the weekly magazine was founded in 1971 and has been online since 1995. Times Higher Education is published by TSL Education Ltd

About Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. It combines industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision-makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, healthcare and science and media markets, powered by the world’s most trusted news organisation. With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs more than 55,000 people and operates in more than 100 countries. For more information, go to www.thomsonreuters.com

ENDS

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