NEW: Brown Named #51 Best University in the World
Thursday, October 04, 2012
Among high-flying competition, Brown University is named the #51 best university in the world by Times Higher Education in the UK.
The new listing, topped for the second year in a row by the California Insitute of Technology, includes drops of numerous prominent American universities, including Brown, which last year held the #49 position. Brown is the only Rhode Island-based institution to make the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
What makes a university world-class?
The annual rankings, now in their 9th year, were developed with data provider Thomson Reuters and utilize "expert input" from more than 50 leading figures in the sector from 15 countries across every continent to develop and assess 13 separate performance indicators, from teaching to research to knowledge transfer. The methodology this year did not change at all from 2011-2012, according to THE.
A look at how the THE split up the world of education into quantifiable slices of the overall pie. Image: THE.
• Teaching — the learning environment (worth 30 per cent of the overall ranking score)
• Research — volume, income and reputation (worth 30 per cent)
• Citations — research influence (worth 30 per cent)
• Industry income — innovation (worth 2.5 per cent)
• International outlook — staff, students and research (worth 7.5 per cent).
The Big Winners
While US universities still dominate the list (and occupy 7 of the top 10 slots as well as 76 of the top 200), American institutions are declining in overall standing. According to THE rankings editor Phil Baty, Asian schools, which are receiving more funding from their governments, are moving up.
Meanwhile, an English interloper dislodged an American university from this year's top 3. The University of Oxford took over Harvard's #2 spot in a tie with Stanford University, which maintained its position. This pushed Harvard to #4, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at #5 (a move upward of 2 spots from 2011-12). Rounding out the Top 10 internationally this year were Princeton at #6, University of Cambridge at #7, Imperial College London at #8, University of California, Berkeley at #9, and University of Chicago at #10.
How Brown fared
With an overall score of 68.9 out of 100, Brown's highest marks came in the area of citations, or research influence. On this indicator, Brown received a top-flight score of 94.1 out of 100. On these rest of the indicators, Brown scored as follows:
Teaching: 63.7
International outlook: 36.9
Industry income: 29.9
Research: 60.3
For the entire rankings, go here.
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