Higher education (university) rankings 2012: Australia and the rest of the world

The ranking of 48 countries across the globe places Australia eighth (The Australian, May 11, 2012).

Universitas 21, a global network of 24 research universities, announced their rankings today in Sweden. Universitas 21 has developed the ranking as a benchmark to highlight the importance of creating a strong environment for higher education institutions so that they can provide a high-quality experience for students. It also provides a tool for higher education institutions to compete for overseas applicants (PR Newswire, May 11, 2012).

The ranking of 48 countries are considered against 20 different measures. The measures are grouped under four headings: (1) resources (investment by government and the private sector), (2) output (research and its impact, and graduates that meet labour market needs), (3) connectivity (international networks and collaboration which protects institutions from insularity), and (4) environment (government policy and regulation). The measures also consider population size.

The Universitas 21 rankings shows that the US, Sweden, Canada, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland and Norway lead Australia, with The Netherlands and UK in 9th and 10th positions. Government funding for higher education (as a percentage of their gross domestic product—GDP) is highest in Finland, Norway, and Denmark. Private funding for higher education is more in the US, Korea, Canada, and Chile. Investment for research and development (R&D) is highest in Denmark, Sweden, and Switzerland. The nation’s universities with the greatest impact are from Switzerland, The Netherlands, the US, the UK, and Denmark. While the United States and the United Kingdom have the world’s top institutions in terms of ranking, the depth of world class higher education institutions per head of population is best in Switzerland, Sweden, Israel, and Denmark.

The highest participation rates in higher education are in Korea, Finland, Greece, the US, Canada, and Slovenia. Countries with the highest proportion of university graduates include Russia, Canada, Israel, the US, Ukraine, Taiwan, and Australia. The most researchers after graduation are found in Finland, Denmark, Singapore, Norway, and Japan.

Most international students studying in higher education occur in Australia, Singapore, Austria, the UK, and Switzerland. International research collaboration is most prominent in Indonesia, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Belgium, and Austria.

In all but eight countries, at least 50% of students were female with the lowest in India and Korea. In only five countries there were at least 50% female academic and administrative personnel, with the lowest in Japan and Iran.

As the compilers point out, the rankings don’t necessarily give an idea of how well a nation’s universities educate their students.

  UNIVERSITAS OVERALL RANKING 2012

      1 USA          100

      2 Sweden       84

      3 Canada       83

      4 Finland      82

      5 Denmark      81

      6 Switzerland  80

      7 Norway       78

      8 Australia    78

      9 Netherlands  77

     10 UK           77

     11 Singapore    75

     12 Austria      74

     13 Belgium      74

     14 New Zealand  73

     15 France       71

     16 Ireland      70

     17 Germany      69

     18 Hong Kong    67

     19 Israel       66

     20 Japan        64

     21 Taiwan       62

     22 Korea        60

     23 Portugal     60

     24 Spain        60

     25 Ukraine      59

     26 Czech Rep    58

     27 Poland       56

     28 Slovenia     56

     29 Greece       55

     30 Italy        54

     31 Bulgaria     53

     32 Russian Fed  52

     33 Romania      51

     34 Hungary      51

     35 Slovakia     51

     36 Malaysia     50

     37 Chile        49

     38 Argentina    49

     39 China        48

     40 Brazil       47

     41 Thailand     47

     42 Iran         46

     43 Mexico       45

     44 Croatia      45

     45 Turkey       44

     46 South Africa 43

     47 Indonesia    37

     48 India        34

 (http://www.universitas21.com/link/U21Rankings)

There are other university ranking organizations such as the Times Higher Education World University Rankings published by the British magazine, Times Higher Education. The inaugural 2010-2011 methodology is 13 separate indicators grouped under five categories: teaching (30 percent of final score), research (30 percent), citations (research impact) (worth 32.5 percent), international mix (5 percent), industry income (2.5 percent). The Times Higher Education billed the methodology as "robust, transparent and sophisticated," stating that the final methodology was selected after considering 10 months of "detailed consultation with leading experts in global higher education," 250 pages of feedback from "50 senior figures across every continent" and 300 postings on its website.

2011–2012 Ranking

Ranking	Institution	Country
1	California Institute of Technology	United States
2 (tied)	Harvard University	United States
2 (tied)	Stanford University	United States
4	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
5	Princeton University	United States
6	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
7	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
8	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
9	University of Chicago	United States
10	University of California, Berkeley	United States
11	Yale University	United States
12	Columbia University	United States
13	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
14	Johns Hopkins University	United States
15	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
16	University of Pennsylvania	United States
17	University College London	United Kingdom
18	University of Michigan	United States
19	University of Toronto	Canada
20	Cornell University	United States
21	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
22	University of British Columbia	Canada