June 28th, 2019
According to the recently released 16th edition of the QS World University Rankings, the United States’ higher education system has recorded its worst performance in 16 years and is accelerating in its rate of decline. This is n unprecedented level of decline experiences by the U.S. higher education sector.
1000 universities from 82 different locations were ranked by QS. 94,000 academics and 44,000 hiring managers were surveyed. 11.8 million research papers and 100 million citations were analyzed. QS measures universities on the basis of their academic standing, graduate employability, student/faculty ration, research impact, and internationalization.
Below is a summary of the QS World University Rankings 2020:
- US holds 10 spots in the top 20.
- In the U.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is the world’s best university for the eighth consecutive year followed by Stanford and Harvard.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- 6% of the US’s 157 ranked universities deteriorate in rank. The US has also recorded its lowest number of top-100 universities (29) since 2016, and four fewer than last year (33).
- 24 of Australia’s 35 universities have risen in rankings demonstrating improvement in their performance.
- China shows a rise from 12 to 19 in 2016 with its top-200 research universities.
- For the first time, the Middle East has entered the top-200 with 2 universities.
- King Abdul Aziz University of Saudi Arabia is now in 186th
King Abdul Aziz University
- Out of 302 universities from destination countries such as Australia, Canada, UK, and US, 216 have recorded worse faculty/student Ratio.
- The US showed losses in the criteria concerning academic reputation and international students and faculty ratio.
- What is the cause of the decline? Government support of higher education. China’s growth is a result of national funding strategy, while in the US the Trump Administration has sought to reduce deferral funding and this year has proposed $7.1 billion in cuts.
- UK is ranked as the “third worst” and 66% of its institutions have slipped in rankings.
- Europe’s second-best university is ETH in Zurich, Switzerland, achieving its highest position ever, overtaking the University of Cambridge
ETH Zurich, Switzerland
- University of Cambridge has dropped to 7th position.
- University of Oxford took fourth place from Caltech, US.
- University of Edinburgh gained two places from 20th to 18th.
- Australia’s rise in the rankings is attributed to: improvements in academic reputation, citations per faculty, and international student ratio.
- Falling rates in faculty/student ratio indicator were the primary driver for Canada’s declining performance.
- Latin America showed twice as many improvements than drops in ranking a sign of increasing competitiveness.
- In Latin America, Brazil has the most number of universities represented but Argentina’s Universidad de Buenas Aires ranks the highest.
- Another country climbing the rankings is Russia with 60% of its universities improving their position and 70% Russia is also climbing the rankings with 60% of its universities showing improvement in their rankings and performance on the international student ratio indicator.
- Asia’s top two universities are the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University also in Singapore (both ranked 11th).
Watch this video for a report on the latest QS rankings of the Top 10 universities:
Sources:
QS World University Rankings https://www.topuniversities.com/
PIENews https://thepienews.com/news/qs-world-rankings-unis-2020/
The Academic Credentials Evaluation Institute, Inc. (ACEI), was founded in 1994 and is based in Los Angeles, CA, USA. ACEI provides a number of services that include evaluations of international academic credentials for U.S. educational equivalence, translation, verification, and professional training programs. ACEI is a Charter and Endorsed Member of the Association of International Credential Evaluators. For more information, visit www.acei-global.org.
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