World University Rankings 2014-15

TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION PUBLISHES WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS 2014-15
- Concern for New Zealand as its only top-200 university, University of Auckland, falls down the rankings

California Institute of Technology holds on to the world number one spot for the fourth consecutive year, ahead of Harvard University in second and the University of Oxford in third

Leading Asian institutions continue to rise. Asia now has 24 universities in the world top 200, up from 20 last year. Two Asian universities now make the world top 25 and six make the top 50

Strong year for Australia, but bad news for New Zealand

UK loses three universities from the prestigious top 200 list, while power concentrates in the South East

Worrying evidence of decline in North America, with significant losses for both the US and Canada

Japan retains its position as Asia’s number one nation. But its universities lose ground against rising Asian nations, including China, Hong Kong and South Korea

Still no top-200 place for India, but it does have a new joint number-one university

Strong performance from the Middle East and North Africa, with Turkey making major rankings gains and representation for Morocco, Iran and Israel

The top 200 now features 28 countries, up from 26 countries last year, with Italy and Russia appearing as new entrants

SEE BELOW FOR TABLES:
• FULL TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS 2014-15 - WORLD TOP 200
• NEW ZEALAND REPRESENTATIVES IN THE THE WUR 2014-15 TOP 400
• COUNTRY REPRESENTATION IN THE TOP 200

PLUS:
• QUOTES FROM PHIL BATY, EDITOR, TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS

Times Higher Education (THE) magazine today publishes its 2014-15 World University Rankings – the 11th annual edition of the globally trusted rankings.

The California Institute of Technology retains its place at the top for the fourth consecutive year, with Harvard University retaining second place. The UK’s University of Oxford slips one place from joint second to third, Stanford University holds fourth place and the UK’s University of Cambridge moves up two places to fifth.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (down one place to sixth), Princeton University (down one place to seventh), the University of California, Berkeley (holding eighth) and Imperial College London and Yale University (sharing ninth place) complete the top ten. The University of Chicago loses its top ten place, dropping to 11th.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings, powered by Thomson Reuters, are the world’s most comprehensive global league tables, using 13 separate performance indicators to examine a university’s strengths against all its core missions – research, knowledge transfer, international outlook and, uniquely among global rankings, the teaching environment.

The THE rankings have been built into government policy and institutions’ strategic plans across the globe, and are the most widely known and most widely used rankings among internationally mobile students.

The US continues to dominate the rankings, taking seven of the top 10 places and 15 of the top 20. But this year it has lost significant ground. It has 74 universities in the top 200, down from 77 last year. After a fairly stable performance last year, 60 per cent of the US universities lost ground this year, and the nation suffered an average fall of 5.34 rankings places. As with previous years, publicly funded US universities suffered the worst losses.

It was a strong year for Asia. There are now 24 universities from the Asian continent in the top 200, compared to 20 last year. This year, two of its institutions appear in the world top 25 (Tokyo University and the National University of Singapore).

Japan’s University of Tokyo maintained its status as Asia’s number one – holding steady in 23rd place – and Japan retained its position as Asia’s top nation for world-class institutions, with five of the top 200 universities. But of Japan’s five universities, four lost ground.

The National University of Singapore this year closed in on Tokyo’s position as the number one in Asia, moving up one place into 25th. Singapore’s other top-200 university, Nanyang Technological University, continued an extraordinary rise, moving from 76th to 61st.

South Korea’s Seoul National University retained its top 50 position (slipping from 44th to 50th), while the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology continued an impressive rise to 52nd place from 56th last year. Sungkyunkwan University joined the top 200 for the first time, in 148th place, while Yonsei University dropped out.

Peking University in China slipped from 45th to 48th, while its close rival, Tsinghua University, rose for another consecutive year, this year moving one place to 49th. China also gained a new top-200 entrant, Fudan University entering the elite list at 193.

The University of Hong Kong maintained its position at 43rd in the world, while the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology moved up from 57th to 51st. Hong Kong also saw City University Hong Kong regain its place in the top 200, in 192nd place.

Australia had a strong year: it gained a new top 200 entrant (the University of Adelaide joining in 164th), and most of its universities moved up the table, led by University of Melbourne in 33rd position (up one place from last year).

There are 11 countries with one top-200 representative: Austria (University of Vienna, joint 182nd), Finland (Helsinki, joint 103rd), Israel (Tel Aviv University, joint 188th), Italy (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, 63rd), New Zealand (University of Auckland, joint 175th), Norway (Oslo, joint 186th), South Africa (University of Cape Town, joint 124th), Spain (Pompeu Fabra University, 165th), the Republic of Ireland (Trinity College Dublin, in 138th), Russia (Moscow State University, in joint 196th)and Taiwan (National Taiwan University, 155th).

Several countries have no top-200 institutions, but are represented in the 200-400 list, including: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Greece, Iceland, India, Iran, Macau, Poland, Portugal and Thailand.

Comments

Phil Baty, the editor of Times Higher Education World University Rankings, said:

“East Asia’s top universities continue their strong upward movement in the rankings, on the back of strong government financial support, strong leadership and a strong commitment to excellence in higher education and research. We now have two Asian universities in the world top 25 for the first time, with eight Asian institutions in or very close to the world top 50 and 24 Asian institutions in the top 200 – four more than last year.

“At the same time, many Western universities, in many cases starved of vital public funding, are losing ground. There is much talk of a power shift from East to West, but these new world university rankings provide hard evidence of the phenomenon. There is little doubt that key East Asian nations have emerged as powerhouses in global higher education and research, while traditional leaders including the UK, Canada and the US, risk losing significant ground in the global knowledge economy.”

On New Zealand

“These results will make difficult reading for New Zealand, as its flagship university, Auckland falls further away from the top of the rankings, and other universities slip or stagnate. Competition in the global knowledge economy is intensifying, and New Zealand will need to invest and work hard strategically to stay competitive – making the best of its geographical advantages in the thriving Asia-Pacific region.”

Tables

THE TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS 2014-15 – NEW ZEALAND UNIVERSITIES IN THE TOP 400
Copyright Times Higher Education 2014
If any of this table is reproduced, you must credit: Times Higher Education and link to the full results and analysis at www.thewur.com

THE TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS 2014-15 – FULL TOP 200
Copyright Times Higher Education 2014
If any of this table is reproduced, you must credit: Times Higher Education and link to the full results and analysis at www.thewur.com

THE TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS 2014-15:
COUNTRY REPRESENTATION IN THE TOP 200
Copyright Times Higher Education 2014
If any of this table is reproduced, you must credit: Times Higher Education and link to the full results and analysis at www.thewur.com

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Free iPhone app, 2014-15

The 2014-15 rankings are available via a free Times Higher Education iPhone app, containing full rankings information on the world’s top 400 institutions. Powered by data from Thomson Reuters, the app allows users to change the rankings’ official weighting scheme to create their own personalised lists based on personal preferences. The app is available free on the iTunes store from 21.00 BST on Wednesday 1 October 2014.

Notes to editors

Methodology key facts

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2014-15 draw upon:
• The world’s largest academic reputation survey (around 10,000 academics in 2014, and almost 70,000 since 2010)
• 50 million citations analysed and compared with the world average from the same field
• Arts, humanities and social sciences placed on an equal footing with science
• Thirteen indicators across five areas have been taken into account, making this the ONLY world rankings to examine ALL the core missions of a modern global university: research, teaching, knowledge transfer and international activity

The indicators 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/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 staff 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 title of the tables is “Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2014-15”
• Data for the Times Higher Education World University Rankings were provided by Thomson Reuters from its Global Institutional Profiles Project, a multi-stage process that collects and validates factual data about academic institutional performance across a range of aspects and multiple disciplines. http://science.thomsonreuters.com/globalprofilesproject/
• Any publication of the “Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2014-15” tables (in full or part) should include full attribution to “Times Higher Education with data supplied by Thomson Reuters”
• YOU MUST include the following link when publishing the “Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2014-15” tables (in full or in part): http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/

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 was founded in 1971 and has been online since 1995. It is published by TES Global.

About Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision-makers in the financial and risk, legal, tax and accounting, intellectual property 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 approximately 60,000 people and operates in more than 100 countries. For more information, see www.thomsonreuters.com

About rankings supplement sponsor IELTS

In celebration of 25 years of IELTS testing, this year’s supplement is proudly sponsored by IELTS, the world’s most popular high-stakes test of English for study, work and global migration. Thousands of universities, colleges and tertiary institutions all over the world, including more than 3,000 institutions in the US, welcome IELTS results from students applying for admission. Students seeking to study in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK can sit an IELTS test at more than 900 test locations across the globe. Students using the WUR app will be able find their nearest test centre and upcoming test dates.

ENDS

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