{"id":3733,"date":"2020-09-16T07:45:59","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T12:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/?p=3733"},"modified":"2020-09-16T07:46:01","modified_gmt":"2020-09-16T12:46:01","slug":"the-annual-ranking-for-colleges-and-universities-has-been-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/2020\/09\/16\/the-annual-ranking-for-colleges-and-universities-has-been-announced\/","title":{"rendered":"The annual ranking for Colleges and Universities has been announced."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today’s post will be a bit out of the ordinary because I will not be discussing science or engineering so much as the places where our scientists and engineers receive their education. I’m talking about the Colleges and Universities of the world. I was prompted to write this post by the release of the annual Times Higher Education survey of the world’s best Colleges and Universities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Why do we humans always feel the need to rank everything? (Credit: UCLA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now\nwhich University was chosen as the best, which schools made into the top 10, or\nwhich country had the most universities in the top 100 is really nothing more\nthan a competitive exercise of no actual importance. What is important is\nwhether or not new institutes of higher learning are being founded, and whether\nexisting universities are getting better. Still it’s worth taking a quick look\nat some of the annual survey’s results in order to get an idea of what is going\non in the world of higher education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the very top of the Times Higher Education list for the fifth straight year is Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Britain also has another spot in the top ten, Cambridge University coming in at number six. All of the other spots in the top ten belong to Universities in the United States from Stanford University at number two to the University of Chicago at number ten. Indeed the first non US non UK University is ETH Zurich in Switzerland coming in at number 14 with the University of Toronto in Canada ranking at #18, and Tsinghua University in China at #20, also appearing in the top 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For the fifth straight year Oxford University was chosen as the world’s best place of higher education. (Credit: University of Oxford)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Stanford University took the second spot in the listing. (Credit: Class Central)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now I’m not trying to brag, and neither should these results be a great surprise. The US and UK have pretty much dominated the world of higher education since the end of World War 2 when most of the world’s other Universities lay in ruin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the years when the USSR was pushing education as the way to demonstrate the superiority of Communism several Russian Universities where recognized as among the best schools in the world. However the current Russian government appears to prefer to keep its population ignorant and gullible so the quality of Russian education has declined noticeably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lomonosov Moscow State University is Russia’s top school at #194 but just three years ago it placed at #161! (Credit: Schlinder)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Instead it’s now China whose institutes of higher learning are gaining the most ground. In addition to Tsinghua University, Peking University received a high ranking of 23 making China the only country other than the US and UK to place two universities in the top 25. China in fact succeeded in doubling its number of schools in the top 100 from three last year to six this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tsinghua University is China’s top ranked school. The obvious newest of the buildings is an indication of the support education is receiving from the Chinese Government. (Credit: Hotels Combined)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most\nof these Chinese Universities are in fact relatively new, babies when compared\nto Oxford or Cambridge. It’s a sign of China’s growing middle class who want a\ngood education for their children, and are willing to pay for it. It’s also a\nsign that the Chinese government recognizes that a larger, better educated\nmiddle class will actually make China a stronger more powerful nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other Asian nations are also working hard to improve the quality of the education they provide to their people. Sixteen Asian universities placed within the top 100, the most since the Times Higher Education list began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The University of Tokyo is another important place of learning. (Credit: Britannica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Of course the improvement in higher education in Asia doesn’t have to mean that education is the west is slipping. In the years to come the world is going to need all of its college and university graduates if we’re going to overcome the tremendous challenges facing our planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Main Building at Drexel University. Drexel has grown so much in the years since I first attended class there! (Credit: The college Post)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

By\nthe way, my old Alma Matter Drexel University came in at 351. Not great, but\nnot bad considering that’s 351st in the entire world. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s post will be a bit out of the ordinary because I will not be discussing science or engineering so much as the places where our scientists and engineers receive their education. I’m talking about the Colleges and Universities of the world. I was prompted to write this post by the release of the annual … Continue reading “The annual ranking for Colleges and Universities has been announced.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1221,1220,1219],"class_list":["post-3733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","tag-growth-of-higher-education","tag-oxford-university","tag-university-rankings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3741,"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3733\/revisions\/3741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}