An assessment carried out by AllAboutUni.com found that Scotland has the highest density of the World's Top-500 universities in the United Kingdom. AllAboutUni.com is an independent, global and interactive website where visitors can obtain information about universities (global rankings, student reviews, university news and campus pictures).
The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) is produced by the Institute of Higher Education at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University click here. Several indicators of academic or research performance are used to establish the ranking, these include highly cited researchers, articles indexed in major citation indices and staff winning Nobel Prizes.
The WorldҀs Top-500 universities (2008) are mainly located in Europe (n=210; 40%), the Americas (n=190; 40%) and the Asian/Pacific region (n=100; 20%) (click here). There are 42 (8%) universities located in the United Kingdom (UK), representing 20% of the universities in Europe.
The top-10 universities in the UK (click here) are: University of Cambridge (ranked 4th in the world), the University of Oxford (10th), University College London (22nd), Imperial College London (27th), The University of Manchester (40th), University of Edinburgh (55th), University of Bristol (61st), University of Sheffield (77th), KingҀs College London (81st) and University of Nottingham (82nd).
The UK has the highest number of universities in the WorldҀs Top-500 universities (42) compared to the other European countries: Germany (40), France (23), Italy (22), the Netherlands (12), Sweden (11) and Spain (9). In the ranking of Europe's Top-10 universities, five are located in the UK and in the Top-25 universities, 9 are located in the United Kingdom (click here).
The UK universities are located in following regions: England (34), Scotland (5), Wales (2) and Northern Ireland (1). An interesting difference is that universities in Scotland are much older than in the other three regions: the median age of the Scottish universities is 513 years (range 127-598) compared to 101 years (range 39-912) in England and 107 years (range 88-125) in Wales.
In order to make a comparison with other industrialized countries, AllAboutUni.com calculates the number of universities in the WorldҀs Top-500 (2008) per one million inhabitants. The overall number of universities per million inhabitants in industrialised countries is 0.5. An earlier assessment found that small countries in Western Europe (Sweden (1.2), Finland (1.1) and Switzerland (1.0)) (click here) and New Zealand (1.2) have the highest number of universities per million inhabitants.
The number of universities in the WorldҀs Top-500 universities that are located in the UK is 0.7 per million inhabitants, which compares favourably with other large industrialized countries: Canada (0.6), Germany (0.5), United States (0.5), France (0.4), Italy (0.4) and Japan (0.2). For the four regions of the United Kingdom, the numbers are as follows: Scotland (1.0), England (0.7), Wales (0.7) and Northern Ireland (0.6).
Conclusions:
Within the UK, Scotland has a much higher density of top universities compared to England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland also performs very well compared to other industrialised countries and the number of Scottish universities per million inhabitants is one of the highest in the world.
Summary:
An assessment carried out by AllAboutUni.com found that Scotland has the highest density of top universities in the United Kingdom. In addition, the assessment found that Scotland has one of the highest densities of top universities per million inhabitants in the world.
Showing posts with label university news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label university news. Show all posts
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Scotland Has Highest Density of World's Top-500 Universities in the U.K.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Massive Accumulation of Endowment Wealth by the WorldҀs Best-25 Universities
An assessment carried out by AllAboutUni.com reveals that a massive accumulation of endowment wealth has been put together by the World's Top-25 universities [1]. AllAboutUni.com is an independent, global and interactive website where visitors can obtain information about universities (global rankings, student reviews, university news and campus pictures).
The WorldҀs Top-25 universities in 2008 (click here) are mainly located in the United States (18 out of 25) and are often private institutions (11 out of 25). This distribution is more pronounced for the WorldҀs Top-10 universities, where 8 out of 10 are located in the United States (US) and 7 out of 10 are private institutions (click here).
Total endowments for each of the universities were collected from Wikipedia.org (accessed on 29 October 2008), and non-US endowments were converted into US dollars (exchange rate of 29 October 2008). The endowments of two universities were not available: the University of Tokyo in Japan (ranked 19th) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ր Zurich in Switzerland (ranked jointly 24th). The analysis is therefore based on 23 universities (18 from the US and 5 from other countries (United Kingdom (3), Canada and Japan) and is a conservative estimate.
The total endowment of the 23 universities was $170.2 billion, and ranged from $172 million (University College London in the UK, ranked 22nd) to $36.9 billion (Harvard University in the US, ranked 1st). The median endowment is $5.9 billion, with universities in the US having higher endowments (median of $6.1 billion, range $471 million to $36.9 billion) than those in the other countries (median of $2.2 billion, range $172 million to $3.4 billion).
Four private universities in the US had 56% of the total endowment wealth of the World's Top-25 universities: Harvard University ($36.9 billion - 22%), Yale University ($22.9 billion - 14%), Stanford University ($17.2 billion - 10%) and Princeton University ($17 billion - 10%). It is therefore no surprise that the private universities in the US have higher endowments (median of $7.2 billion) than the public universities in the US (median of $1.3 billion).
This accumulation of wealth by the World's Top-25 universities is quite astonishing. For example, the total wealth accumulated by the World's Top-25 universities is greater than the budget of the State of California ($111 billion in 2008-09) or it places these universities 41st in the country ranking of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) according to the International Monetary Fund (in front of Nigeria, Romania and Israel).
The accumulation of endowment wealth by universities has both positive and negative sides. A large university endowment supports the operating budget of the university and gives the university greater independence and resources which can be used, for example, to establish new research institutes or to fund scholarships. In the fiscal year 2008, distributions from the Harvard University endowment totalled $1.6 billion, contributing more than one third of the university's operating budget in addition to supporting substantial capital outlays (click here).
There are also a number of negative sides associated with large university endowments. One of these is that it gives the university an image of accumulating too much wealth and being greedy. Another is that it leads to criticism about the allocation of the endowment income (for example, Harvard University could allow its students to attend for free for just $300 million, which is a fraction of the 2008 endowment income (click here). Finally, it makes it impossible for other (less well endowed) universities around the world to compete on an even playing field with universities that have established very large endowments.
Background note:
[1] The analysis is based on a ranking of the WorldҀs Top-500 Universities produced by the Institute of Higher Education at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (click here). Several indicators of academic or research performance are used to establish the ranking, these include staff winning Nobel Prizes, highly cited researchers and articles indexed in major citation indices. The rankings have been published since 2003, with the 2008 ranking published on 15 August 2008.
The WorldҀs Top-25 universities in 2008 (click here) are mainly located in the United States (18 out of 25) and are often private institutions (11 out of 25). This distribution is more pronounced for the WorldҀs Top-10 universities, where 8 out of 10 are located in the United States (US) and 7 out of 10 are private institutions (click here).
Total endowments for each of the universities were collected from Wikipedia.org (accessed on 29 October 2008), and non-US endowments were converted into US dollars (exchange rate of 29 October 2008). The endowments of two universities were not available: the University of Tokyo in Japan (ranked 19th) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ր Zurich in Switzerland (ranked jointly 24th). The analysis is therefore based on 23 universities (18 from the US and 5 from other countries (United Kingdom (3), Canada and Japan) and is a conservative estimate.
The total endowment of the 23 universities was $170.2 billion, and ranged from $172 million (University College London in the UK, ranked 22nd) to $36.9 billion (Harvard University in the US, ranked 1st). The median endowment is $5.9 billion, with universities in the US having higher endowments (median of $6.1 billion, range $471 million to $36.9 billion) than those in the other countries (median of $2.2 billion, range $172 million to $3.4 billion).
Four private universities in the US had 56% of the total endowment wealth of the World's Top-25 universities: Harvard University ($36.9 billion - 22%), Yale University ($22.9 billion - 14%), Stanford University ($17.2 billion - 10%) and Princeton University ($17 billion - 10%). It is therefore no surprise that the private universities in the US have higher endowments (median of $7.2 billion) than the public universities in the US (median of $1.3 billion).
This accumulation of wealth by the World's Top-25 universities is quite astonishing. For example, the total wealth accumulated by the World's Top-25 universities is greater than the budget of the State of California ($111 billion in 2008-09) or it places these universities 41st in the country ranking of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) according to the International Monetary Fund (in front of Nigeria, Romania and Israel).
The accumulation of endowment wealth by universities has both positive and negative sides. A large university endowment supports the operating budget of the university and gives the university greater independence and resources which can be used, for example, to establish new research institutes or to fund scholarships. In the fiscal year 2008, distributions from the Harvard University endowment totalled $1.6 billion, contributing more than one third of the university's operating budget in addition to supporting substantial capital outlays (click here).
There are also a number of negative sides associated with large university endowments. One of these is that it gives the university an image of accumulating too much wealth and being greedy. Another is that it leads to criticism about the allocation of the endowment income (for example, Harvard University could allow its students to attend for free for just $300 million, which is a fraction of the 2008 endowment income (click here). Finally, it makes it impossible for other (less well endowed) universities around the world to compete on an even playing field with universities that have established very large endowments.
Background note:
[1] The analysis is based on a ranking of the WorldҀs Top-500 Universities produced by the Institute of Higher Education at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (click here). Several indicators of academic or research performance are used to establish the ranking, these include staff winning Nobel Prizes, highly cited researchers and articles indexed in major citation indices. The rankings have been published since 2003, with the 2008 ranking published on 15 August 2008.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Germany's 9 universities of Excellence are included in the WorldҀs Top-500 universities.
An assessment carried out by AllAboutUni.com reveals that 8 of Germany's 9 universities of Excellence are included in the WorldҀs Top-500 universities. AllAboutUni.com is an independent, global and inter-active website where visitors can obtain information about universities (global rankings, Education, higher education, university, college, Europe, Germany, Top 500 Universities, German Universities, Education news, University News and campus pictures). It publishes regular reports on universities around the world.
The German Federal Ministry of Education and the German Research Foundation launched an Excellence Initiative to promote research in Germany and to enhance the international visibility of German universities. As part of this initiative, nine universities of Excellence were selected: the Free University of Berlin, the Ludgwig Maximilian University of Munich, the Rheinisch-Westf䀀lische Technische Hochschule Aachen, the Technical University of Munich, the University of Constance, the Unviersity of Freiburg, the University of G怀ttingen, the University of Heidelberg and the Unversity of Karlsruhe.
German universities (a total of 40 universities) are well represented in the WorldҀs Top-500 universities compared to most other European countries. However, compared to the US (159 universities) and the United Kingdom (42 universities) it performs poorly, especially in the WorldҀs Top-25 universities.
Of the nine universities of Excellence, five are in the World's Top-100 universities (Munich (55), Technical University of Munich (57), Heidelberg (67), G怀ttingen (90) and Freiburg (96)), two are in the World's Top-201-302 universities (Aachen and Karlsruhe) and one is in the World's Top-303-401 universities (Constance).
It is interesting to note that 6 of the 9 universities of Excellence are based in the southern States (L䀀nder) of Baden-W쀀rttemberg (4) and Bavaria (2). It is surprising to note that the University of Bonn ր a university ranked 99th in the WorldҀs Top-500 universities ր is not included in the nine universities of Excellence. Finally, the Free University of Berlin ր which is a university of Excellence ր is not included the WorldҀs (Top-500 Universities).
The German Federal Ministry of Education and the German Research Foundation launched an Excellence Initiative to promote research in Germany and to enhance the international visibility of German universities. As part of this initiative, nine universities of Excellence were selected: the Free University of Berlin, the Ludgwig Maximilian University of Munich, the Rheinisch-Westf䀀lische Technische Hochschule Aachen, the Technical University of Munich, the University of Constance, the Unviersity of Freiburg, the University of G怀ttingen, the University of Heidelberg and the Unversity of Karlsruhe.
German universities (a total of 40 universities) are well represented in the WorldҀs Top-500 universities compared to most other European countries. However, compared to the US (159 universities) and the United Kingdom (42 universities) it performs poorly, especially in the WorldҀs Top-25 universities.
Of the nine universities of Excellence, five are in the World's Top-100 universities (Munich (55), Technical University of Munich (57), Heidelberg (67), G怀ttingen (90) and Freiburg (96)), two are in the World's Top-201-302 universities (Aachen and Karlsruhe) and one is in the World's Top-303-401 universities (Constance).
It is interesting to note that 6 of the 9 universities of Excellence are based in the southern States (L䀀nder) of Baden-W쀀rttemberg (4) and Bavaria (2). It is surprising to note that the University of Bonn ր a university ranked 99th in the WorldҀs Top-500 universities ր is not included in the nine universities of Excellence. Finally, the Free University of Berlin ր which is a university of Excellence ր is not included the WorldҀs (Top-500 Universities).
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Eight EU countries not represented in the WorldҀs Top-500 Universities
An assessment carried out by AllAboutUni.com reveals that 8 of the 27 countries in the European Union (EU) are not represented in the WorldҀs Top-50 universities. AllAboutUni.com is an independent, global and inter-active website where visitors can obtain information about universities (global rankings, student reviews, university news and campus pictures). It publishes regular reports on universities around the world.
The analysis is based on a ranking of the WorldҀs Top-500 Universities produced by the Institute of Higher Education at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (click here). Several indicators of academic or research performance are used to establish the ranking, these include staff winning Nobel Prizes, highly cited researchers and articles indexed in major citation indices. The rankings have been published since 2003, with the 2008 rankings published on 15 August 2008.
The eight EU countries that are not represented in the World's Top-500 universities in 2008 are: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Romania and Slovakia. In other words, small countries in Western Europe (Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta) and countries in Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia). All of the other EU countries are represented in the list, with the top five being: Germany (44 universities), United Kingdom (42), France (23), Italy (22) and the Netherlands (12).
Overall, the Europe region is well represented in the World's Top-500 universities, with roughly 40% (n=210) of universities based in this region compared to 40% (n=190) for the Americas and 20% (n=100) for Asia/Pacific ( click here). However, when one looks at the Top-100 Universities, there is a predominance of US universities (58 universities versus 23 for Europe), and the United Kingdom performs better than other European countries (click here). In the Top-10 Universities, US and private universities are dominant (click here).
One hypothesis is that the larger EU countries will dominate the number of universities in the list of the World's Top-500 Universities. This is clearly the case with Germany, United Kingdom, France and Italy providing the most (62%) of the universities from Europe. However, if one adjusts for population size (i.e. one calculates the number of universities in the Top-500 per 1 million inhabitants in the country), the following ranking is obtained: Sweden (1.2 universities in the World's Top-500 Universities per 1 million inhabitants), Finland (1.2), Austria (0.9), Denmark (0.8) and the Netherlands (0.7). This means the EU countries with the most universities per 1 million inhabitants are located in smaller countries in Western Europe, especially countries in Scandinavia.
The AllAboutUni.com website provides a portal where students can find independent information about universities from around the world. рThe website allows students to compare colleges and universities online based on independent information: the Shanghai rankings, student reviews and campus pictures. Combining this with the information provided by university websites, we hope students will be able to find the college or university of their dreamsҀ, says John Paget, Founder of the AllAboutUni.com website. John studied Economics at the London School of Economics and then completed graduate studies in the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The AllAboutUni.com website was launched in November 2007.
The analysis is based on a ranking of the WorldҀs Top-500 Universities produced by the Institute of Higher Education at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (click here). Several indicators of academic or research performance are used to establish the ranking, these include staff winning Nobel Prizes, highly cited researchers and articles indexed in major citation indices. The rankings have been published since 2003, with the 2008 rankings published on 15 August 2008.
The eight EU countries that are not represented in the World's Top-500 universities in 2008 are: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Romania and Slovakia. In other words, small countries in Western Europe (Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta) and countries in Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia). All of the other EU countries are represented in the list, with the top five being: Germany (44 universities), United Kingdom (42), France (23), Italy (22) and the Netherlands (12).
Overall, the Europe region is well represented in the World's Top-500 universities, with roughly 40% (n=210) of universities based in this region compared to 40% (n=190) for the Americas and 20% (n=100) for Asia/Pacific ( click here). However, when one looks at the Top-100 Universities, there is a predominance of US universities (58 universities versus 23 for Europe), and the United Kingdom performs better than other European countries (click here). In the Top-10 Universities, US and private universities are dominant (click here).
One hypothesis is that the larger EU countries will dominate the number of universities in the list of the World's Top-500 Universities. This is clearly the case with Germany, United Kingdom, France and Italy providing the most (62%) of the universities from Europe. However, if one adjusts for population size (i.e. one calculates the number of universities in the Top-500 per 1 million inhabitants in the country), the following ranking is obtained: Sweden (1.2 universities in the World's Top-500 Universities per 1 million inhabitants), Finland (1.2), Austria (0.9), Denmark (0.8) and the Netherlands (0.7). This means the EU countries with the most universities per 1 million inhabitants are located in smaller countries in Western Europe, especially countries in Scandinavia.
The AllAboutUni.com website provides a portal where students can find independent information about universities from around the world. рThe website allows students to compare colleges and universities online based on independent information: the Shanghai rankings, student reviews and campus pictures. Combining this with the information provided by university websites, we hope students will be able to find the college or university of their dreamsҀ, says John Paget, Founder of the AllAboutUni.com website. John studied Economics at the London School of Economics and then completed graduate studies in the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The AllAboutUni.com website was launched in November 2007.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Asian/Pacific universities poorly represented in the WorldҀs Top-100 Universities
An assessment carried out by AllAboutUni.com reveals that only 8 Asian/Pacific universities are included in the WorldҀs Top-100 universities. AllAboutUni.com is an independent, global and inter-active website where visitors can obtain information about universities (global rankings, student reviews, university news and campus pictures). It publishes regular reports on universities around the world.
The analysis is based on a ranking of the WorldҀs top-500 Universities produced by the Institute of Higher Education at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Several indicators of academic or research performance are used to establish the ranking, these include staff winning Nobel Prizes, highly cited researchers and articles indexed in major citation indices. The rankings have been published since 2003, with the 2008 rankings published on 15 August 2008.
Looking solely at the World's Top-100 universities, there are only 8 universities in the Asian/Pacific region: Tokyo University (ranked 19th), Kyoto University (23rd), Australian National University (59th), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (65th), Osaka University (68th), University of Melbourne (73rd), Tohoku University (79th) and University of Sydney (97th). In comparison, there were 58 universities based in the Americas (mainly in the USA) and 34 in Europe.
Looking at the WorldҀs Top-500 universities, 20% are located in the Asian/Pacific (n=100) area, roughly 40% in Europe (n=210) and 40% in the Americas (n=190). The 100 Asian/Pacific universities are located in the following countries: Japan (31), China (18), Australia (15), South Korea (8), China - Taiwan (7), Israel (6), China - Hong Kong (5), New Zealand (5), Singapore (2) and India (2). A number of factors will affect the Asian/Pacific rankings, including the size of the economy, the level of development, national wealth and population size. However, it seems that India, with a total population of 900 million inhabitants, is poorly represented in the ranking and Australia, with a total population of 20 million inhabitants, is very well represented.
The AllAboutUni.com website provides a portal where students can find independent information about universities from around the world. рThe website allows students to compare colleges and universities online based on independent information: the Shanghai rankings, student reviews and campus pictures. Combining this with the information provided by university websites, we hope students will be able to find the college or university of their dreamsҀ, says John Paget, Founder of the AllAboutUni.com website. John studied Economics at the London School of Economics and then completed graduate studies in the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The AllAboutUni.com website was launched in November 2007.
The analysis is based on a ranking of the WorldҀs top-500 Universities produced by the Institute of Higher Education at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Several indicators of academic or research performance are used to establish the ranking, these include staff winning Nobel Prizes, highly cited researchers and articles indexed in major citation indices. The rankings have been published since 2003, with the 2008 rankings published on 15 August 2008.
Looking solely at the World's Top-100 universities, there are only 8 universities in the Asian/Pacific region: Tokyo University (ranked 19th), Kyoto University (23rd), Australian National University (59th), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (65th), Osaka University (68th), University of Melbourne (73rd), Tohoku University (79th) and University of Sydney (97th). In comparison, there were 58 universities based in the Americas (mainly in the USA) and 34 in Europe.
Looking at the WorldҀs Top-500 universities, 20% are located in the Asian/Pacific (n=100) area, roughly 40% in Europe (n=210) and 40% in the Americas (n=190). The 100 Asian/Pacific universities are located in the following countries: Japan (31), China (18), Australia (15), South Korea (8), China - Taiwan (7), Israel (6), China - Hong Kong (5), New Zealand (5), Singapore (2) and India (2). A number of factors will affect the Asian/Pacific rankings, including the size of the economy, the level of development, national wealth and population size. However, it seems that India, with a total population of 900 million inhabitants, is poorly represented in the ranking and Australia, with a total population of 20 million inhabitants, is very well represented.
The AllAboutUni.com website provides a portal where students can find independent information about universities from around the world. рThe website allows students to compare colleges and universities online based on independent information: the Shanghai rankings, student reviews and campus pictures. Combining this with the information provided by university websites, we hope students will be able to find the college or university of their dreamsҀ, says John Paget, Founder of the AllAboutUni.com website. John studied Economics at the London School of Economics and then completed graduate studies in the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The AllAboutUni.com website was launched in November 2007.
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