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US declines across all metrics in latest global university rankings, China’s impressive improvement
Brendan O’Malley 11 June 2022Share
The United States declines across all metrics despite remaining the world’s pre-eminent higher education system and despite Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) celebrating 11 years as the world’s best university in the latest QS World University Rankings, released on Wednesday.
In the top 10 there is a little movement, with the University of Oxford (fourth) dropping two places while the University of Cambridge moves up one place to second. But there are no new entrants.
At the top is MIT (US), followed by the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom), Stanford University (US), the University of Oxford (UK), Harvard University (US), the California Institute of Technology (US), Imperial College London (UK), UCL (UK), ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and the University of Chicago (US).
The US continues to decline broadly across its 201 ranked universities with more than 50% dropping down the table – representative of a trend that has persisted for several years due largely to rapidly growing global competition, QS reports.
Of these 201 universities, 29 improve (14.4%), 44 remain stable (22%), but 103 decline (51%). On the plus side, 25 are newly ranked (14% increase year on year).
Ben Sowter, QS senior vice president, said: “MIT’s success takes the spotlight as the world’s pre-eminent university and the US shines as the world’s superlative higher education system.
“However, the American higher education system is declining across all QS’s metrics. This year, there is not a single indicator in which more than half of US ranked universities improve – illustrating that US world hegemony in higher education is starting to wane, due to encroaching excellence from abroad.”
The QS World University Rankings 2023, the 19th edition of the rankings, is the largest ever, with 1,418 institutions across 100 locations, up from 1,300 last year.
The results account for the distribution and performance of 16.4 million academic papers published between 2016 and 2020 and the 117.8 million citations received by those papers; they also account for the expert opinions of over 151,000 academic faculty and over 99,000 employers.
UK and Canada decline
Among the other takeaways in this year’s rankings, the United Kingdom and Canada both reflect a pattern of declines in placings. The UK sees 48 out of 90 universities decline, while only 10 improve, although on the plus side, 55% of its research involves global collaborations versus the global average of 20%.
Canada sees 20 out of 31 universities drop, while McGill University (31st in the world) is the new national leader.
Australia retains five top-50 universities, yet is stagnating, with as many universities improving as declining.
China’s impressive improvement
China (mainland), the third most-represented higher education system with 71 universities – only the US (201) and the UK (90) have more – becomes home to two world top-15 universities for the first time, with Peking University 12th and Tsinghua University 14th, surging six and three places respectively and both achieving their highest place ever since the rankings began in 2004.
Sowter said: “No higher education system has improved as impressively as China’s has over the past decade. Until 2018 there was not a single Chinese university in the top 20. Now, due to concerted government investment and strong institutional strategising, China’s universities enjoy global recognition and world-leading research productivity.
“The latest milestone achieved by Chinese higher education offers more evidence that the Double First Class initiative is moving successfully towards fulfilment of its lofty ambitions.”
US declines across all metrics in latest global rankings
The United States declines across all metrics in the latest QS World University Rankings, with 50% of universities dropping places, despite Massachuse...
www.universityworldnews.com
