Thursday 3 October 2013

World University Rankings 2013-2014: Asia Pacific outruns other Asiatic regions; U.S.A/Europe holds sway


Times Higher Education World University Rankings has released its rankings for 2013-2014. The institution claims that it employs "13 carefully calibrated performance indicators" to compile the list.

Among, the indicators are teaching and the learning environment, worth 30% cent of the overall ranking score. Volume of research and citations; industry income; innovation and international outlooks are among the other benchmarks.

The Western institutions are over the top. No surprise,  they are torch bearer of the science since long. Universities from both sides of the North Atlantic dominate the ranking.

California Institute of Technology is at number one, retaining its last year slot. The second slot is jointly occupied by U.S.A.'s Stanford University and the UK's Oxford University. Harvard University, MIT, Princeton University and Cambridge University are among the top 10s.

The first Asian university to appear is the University of Tokyo -- ranked 23rd, scoring over all 76.4.The University of Tokyo was last year at 27.

Interestingly from the 23rd to 100th bracket, 11 universities are from the Far East region belonging to a close knitted group, both economically and ethically. ie Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, and Singapore. The rest of the Asians are no closer or out of sight among the prestigious 100 group.

At 191 comes Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. At 199 is a university located in its neighbor Turkey. Where are Israel's rival Arabs?

Well they are not completely out! King Abdulaziz University and King Saud University of Saudi Arabia are though too faraway but they are in the picture around 350th or so. Once the pioneer and at the forefront of Science, Arabs are faring too bad on this front.

What about two other rivals, both famous for piling up nukes. Well India's Panjab University is among top 230s or so. Pakistan Universities like NUST, Quad e Azam and Punjab Universities are nowhere. Though neck to neck in nuke race, Pakistanis are lagging much behind their eastern counterpart, who also has a dismal performance.

The rankings could serve as how much nations are spending on their education and technology institutions. They suggests also the Far Easterners are faring best in the field of science and technology, and will pose some serious competition to the Western monopoly over the field.

Furthermore, the 100 Under 50 show the top 100 universities under 50 years old. It also take any lame excuse from the nations free in 1950s for doing no good job on this front. It provides a glimpse into the future of so many nations that got independence in the roughly past 60 years or so. If we exclude the Europeans and their distant cousins from the young universities list, this group has a healthy presence of the Far East.

If we remove the South African's four universities contributions, the dark continent would continue to be true to its name. Only three could manage to hold ground for South America continent.Perhaps its time for riot-ridden Africa to concentrate more on education or be prepared for yet more worse to come!!!
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