Latest QS world league table is out
A preview of the 2012/13 QS World University Rankings from John O’Leary, makes clear the impact that the league tables have. Not just on institutions but also on governments:
The rankings, which will be published on September 11, are intended primarily to guide international students, their parents and advisors in their choice of university. This year, there will be 700 institutions to compare on six different measures, with additional faculty-specific rankings to illustrate particular strengths.
But QS rankings are also used by governments from Denmark and Germany to Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Japan to evaluate the standing of their own and other countries’ universities. Positions are used in funding allocations, promotional material and even immigration decisions.
The German and Japanese governments have both used QS ranking positions as one of their performance measures in research budgeting. Thailand is one of a growing number of countries to use the rankings to shortlist the universities chosen for additional funding to help them compete internationally.
In the UK, the Browne Report on student fees used QS rankings to illustrate the high standing of the country’s universities. A Government-funded advertising campaign coinciding with the Olympic Games in London to promote the UK as a tourist or business destination also quoted the rankings.
Full details of the rankings can be found at the QS website. A summary of the world top 10 follows where we find a swap at the top as MIT replaces Cambridge at No 1 and four UK universities remain in the top 10:
Global top ten
| 2012 | 2011 | Institution |
| 1 | 3 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) |
| 2 | 1 | University of Cambridge |
| 3 | 2 | Harvard University |
| 4 | 7 | UCL (University College London) |
| 5 | 5 | University of Oxford |
| 6 | 6 | Imperial College London |
| 7 | 4 | Yale University |
| 8 | 8 | University of Chicago |
| 9 | 13 | Princeton University |
| 10 | 12 | California Institute of Technology (Caltech) |
The UK also has 18 universities in the top 100:
Top UK universities
| 2 | 1 | University of Cambridge | GB |
| 4 | 7 | UCL (University College London) | GB |
| 5 | 5 | University of Oxford | GB |
| 6 | 6 | Imperial College London | GB |
| 21 | 20 | University of Edinburgh | GB |
| 26 | 27 | King’s College London (KCL) | GB |
| 28 | 30 | University of Bristol | GB |
| 32 | 29 | The University of Manchester | GB |
| 54 | 59 | University of Glasgow | GB |
| 58 | 50 | The University of Warwick | GB |
| 66 | 72 | The University of Sheffield | GB |
| 69 | 64 | London School of Economics and Political Science | GB |
| 72 | 74 | The University of Nottingham | GB |
| 73 | 75 | University of Southampton | GB |
| 77 | 67 | University of Birmingham | GB |
| 92 | 95 | Durham University | GB |
| 93 | 97 | University of St Andrews | GB |
| 94 | 93 | University of Leeds | GB |
