Global University Rankings 2015

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After having conducted expansive research by contacting 1600 institutes and over 9000 recruiters around the world, Youth Inc has ranked the top 100 universities in the world to pursue an undergraduate programme

Welcome to the Youth Incorporated, Education Times and Rediff.com  Global University Rankings 2015. Continuing with our yearly rankings for the best global universities, we have conducted widespread research work spanning several months to sort through extensive raw data and bring out a finished analysis that is practical and can be helpful in the selection process for students looking to enrol in the top programmes the world over. We got in touch with 1600 institutes to gauge their responses to dispassionate questions that would assist us in evaluating the quality of the educational experience provided by them. We also considered the responses from the current students attending the universities along with official responses from their respective administrative bodies. We also thought that in order to make our rankings most relevant and credible it was important that we accumulated responses from alumni of the institutes. In addition, we procured information from 9000 recruiters that have previously recruited graduates from the institutes considered in the surveys.
Once an adequate amount of data was gathered, we broke down the information by placing emphasis on the most important criteria a student considers when taking admission at an institute. Factors such as value for money, student and recruiter satisfaction, infrastructure and facilities, teaching methodologies and much more were considered to rank the institutes. This scrupulous method was employed by us to bring out the rankings of the top 100 universities worldwide. We were also able to provide rankings based on regional distribution and streams of study. To give the readers a holistic view of how a particular institute has fared over the years, the ranking for this year was placed against our previously conducted annual rankings. We hope our in depth survey will guide students in making the right choice yet again!

TOP 100 UNIVERSITIES

We present to you the rankings of the top 100 colleges in the world, collated from opinions by students, faculty and recruiters of more than 1600 institutes from around the world

HOW HAVE THE INSTITUTES FARED COMPARED TO 2013 AND 2014?

Placing 2015’s rankings against those we conducted in 2013 and 2014, a comparison of the performance of the institutes over the years is clearly visible. Harvard University and Stanford University have retained their respective positions as the top two universities, while University of Oxford and Massachusetts Institute of Technology came back to the third and fourth positions respectively as in 2013, knocking off University of Pennsylvania to fifth place. The top 10 of 2014 have managed to stay at the top of the table with a few universities improving on their previous rank and a few dropping by a rank or two. The top 10 continues to be dominated by American institutes with the only exception being University of Oxford.
Among the Asian universities, University of Tokyo is the highest at 15th place, which has remained steady from its 2014 rank. It’s followed by Indian Institute of Technology Bombay at 20, which has come up from 24, and National University of Singapore, which has slipped to 25 from 23. As is evident, most universities in the top 100 seem to show a consistent performance over the years with similar rankings.

The India Story
This year, the four colleges from India that have always appeared in our rankings have actually risen in their ranks. IIT-Bombay is the only Indian college that has managed to reach the top 20 of the world. IIT-Delhi has maintained its position at 27 for the past two years, showing considerable consistency. However, IIT-Kanpur and University of Delhi are also climbing up, although they have a long way to go. India, today, is a young country, with more than 50 percent of its population below the age of 25, much higher than its more developed counterparts around the world. There is a high demand for quality education in our country today, but how much of it is available to those who need it? With just four Indian universities in the top 100 global rankings, it’s no wonder that several students aim to study abroad and then come back to work here. The deciding factor, it seems, comes down to infrastructure and placement opportunities.
And yet, the ground reality might be a little different. Even if most Indian universities don’t feature in the top 100 rankings, the fact remains that the student success rate at these universities might be almost as high as those from Harvard or Oxford. In a study that tracked alumni of the top universities who went on to becoming billionaires, University of Mumbai came in at number nine, with 12 billionaires, outperforming the likes of LSE, Columbia and MIT; Harvard was at the top spot with 25 billionaire alumni.
Of course, there might be a lot for the Indian universities to catch up on when it comes to infrastructure and global viability, but things aren’t as glum as they seem. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi coming in to the picture, there are great expectations amongst the public that he will work on improving the education sector to match international standards and see more Indian universities being featured in global rankings. He acknowledges the shortfalls in the educational sector in India, as he remarks, “Our education apparatus can’t be one that produces robots. That can happen even in a laboratory. There has to be overall personality development.” If one was to consider our top 100 rankings as a yardstick, then it’s pretty clear that the only way is up for the up-and-coming Indian universities.

Rank Institute Country Score
1 Harvard University USA 100
2 Stanford University USA 99.3
3 University of Oxford UK 99
4 MIT USA 98
5 University of Pennsylvania USA 97
6 University of Chicago USA 96.5
7 Columbia University USA 96
8 Princeton University USA 95.4
9 Cornell University USA 95
10 Yale University USA 94.3
11 California Institute of Technology USA 94
12 London School of Economics UK 93
13 Imperial College London UK 92
14 IE University Spain 91.5
15 University of Tokyo Japan 91
16 University of Cambridge UK 90.5
17 University of Waterloo Canada 90
18 New York University USA 89.5
19 Brown University USA 88.2
20 Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai India 88
21 University of Michigan Ann Arbor USA 87
22 Carnegie Mellon University USA 86.5
23 Ecole Normale Superieure France 86
24 University of California at Los Angeles USA 85
25 National University Singapore Singapore 84
26 University of Melbourne Australia 83
27 Indian Institute of Technology Delhi India 82
28 Hong Kong University of Science & Technology China 81.5
29 University of California at Berkeley USA 81
30 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen Germany 80.5
31 Northwestern University USA 80
32 Chinese University of Hong Kong China 79.5
33 Duke University USA 79
34 University College London UK 78.6
35 Emory University USA 78.3
36 Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne Switzerland 78
37 Johns Hopkins University USA 77
38 University of Virginia USA 76.5
39 Universidade de Sao Paulo Brazil 76
40 University of Texas at Austin USA 75
41 King’s College London UK 74.5
42 University of Zurich Switzerland 74
43 University of Copenhagen Denmark 73.5
44 Rice University USA 73
45 University of British Columbia Canada 72.5
46 Dartmouth College USA 72
47 HEC France 71.7
48 Peking University China 71.3
49 University of Helsinki Finland 71.1
50 University of Sydney Australia 69.6
51 Technische Universitat Munchen Germany 69.5
52 Universitat Heidelberg Germany 69
53 Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile Chile 68
54 University of Southern California USA 67
55 Vanderbilt University USA 66
56 Fudan University China 65
57 Universidad de Buenos Aires Argentina 64
58 Australian National University Australia 63.5
59 University of Warwick UK 63
60 Tokyo Institute of Technology Japan 62
61 Nanyang Technological University Singapore 61
62 Seoul National University Korea 60
63 University of Birmingham UK 59.5
64 Ecole Polytechnique France 59
65 Monash University Australia 58
66 University of Wisconsin Madison USA 57.8
67 Erasmus University Rotterdam Netherlands 57.5
68 University of Edinburgh UK 57.2
69 University of New South Wales Australia 57
70 Paris Dauphine University France 56.3
71 University of North Carolina Chapel Hill USA 56
72 Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico Mexico 55
73 University of Queensland Australia 54
74 Tohoku University Japan 53
75 University of Surrey UK 52
76 University of Auckland New Zealand 51
77 Tsinghua University China 50.5
78 University of Groningen Netherlands 50
79 University of Bern Switzerland 49
80 Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur India 48
81 University of Rochester USA 47
82 Georgia Institute of Technology USA 46
83 Uppsala University Sweden 45.6
84 National Taiwan University Taiwan 44
85 ESADE Business School Spain 43.8
86 University of Adelaide Australia 43.5
87 University of York UK 43.2
88 Ecole Centrale de Paris France 43
89 University of Washington USA 42.7
90 University of Delhi India 42.4
91 Purdue University USA 42.1
92 Stockholm University Sweden 41.8
93 University of Sciences Philadelphia USA 41.5
94 University of Amsterdam Netherlands 41.2
95 University of Pittsburg Bradford USA 41
96 Bradley University USA 40.7
97 University of Hawaii Hilo USA 40.5
98 Grenoble Ecole de Management France 40.2
99 Washington University St Louis USA 39.7
100 Heriot-Watt University UK 39

 

2015 BEST REGIONAL UNIVERSITIES

 

    Oxford - public domain

 

 

 

 

 

Top European Universities

Rank Institute Country
1 University of Oxford UK
2 London School of Economics UK
3 Imperial College London UK
4 IE University Spain
5 University of Cambridge UK
6 Ecole Normale Superieure France
7 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen Germany
8 University College London UK
9 Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne Switzerland
10 King’s College London UK

 

Massachusetts Institute (InSapphoWeTrust, flickr)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top US Universities

Rank Institute Country
1 Harvard University USA
2 Stanford University USA
3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology USA
4 University of Pennsylvania USA
5 University of Chicago USA
6 Columbia University USA
7 Princeton University USA
8 Cornell University USA
9 Yale University USA
10 California Institute of Technology USA

 

University of Sydney (Jason Tong, wikimedia commons)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top Australian Universities

Rank Institute Country
1 University of Melbourne Australia
2 University of Sydney Australia
3 Australian National University Australia
4 Monash University Australia
5 University of New South Wales Australia
6 University of Queensland Australia
7 University of Adelaide Australia

 

IITB_Main_Building (Rohan Sethi, wikimedia commons)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top Asian Universities

Rank Institute Country
1 University of Tokyo Japan
2 Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai India
3 National University Singapore Singapore
4 Indian Institute of Technology Delhi India
5 Hong Kong University of Science & Technology China
6 Chinese University of Hong Kong China
7 Peking University China
8 Fudan University China
9 Tokyo Institute of Technology Japan
10 Nanyang Technological University Singapore

 

TOP UNIVERSITIES IN DIFFERENT STREAMS

Johns Hopkins - public domain (life sciences)

 

 

 

 

 

 

LIFE SCIENCES & MEDICINE

Rank Institute Country
1 Johns Hopkins University USA
2 Stanford University USA
3 University of Cambridge UK
4 Harvard University USA
5 Yale University USA
6 University of Oxford UK
7 University of California at Berkeley USA
8 Cornell University USA
9 University of Pennsylvania USA
10 Imperial College London UK

 

Stanford uni (King of Hearts, wikimedia commons)

 

 

 

PURE SCIENCES

Rank Institute Country
1 Harvard University USA
2 Stanford University USA
3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology USA
4 National University Singapore Singapore
5 Princeton University USA
6 University of Oxford UK
7 Yale University USA
8 Cornell University USA
9 University of Cambridge UK
10 University of Tokyo Japan

 

princeton

 

 

 

 

 

ART & HUMANITIES

Rank Institute Country
1 Harvard University USA
2 University of Cambridge UK
3 Stanford University USA
4 Yale University USA
5 University of Oxford UK
6 Princeton University USA
7 National University Singapore Singapore
8 Columbia University USA
9 University of Tokyo Japan
10 Cornell University USA

 

Cambridge - Andrew Dunn, Wikimedia Commons

 

 

 

 

 

 

BUSINESS PROGRAMMES

Rank Institute Country
1 Harvard University USA
2 Stanford University USA
3 IE University Spain
4 National University Singapore Singapore
5 Cornell University USA
6 Columbia University USA
7 University of Cambridge UK
8 London School of Economics UK
9 Massachusetts Institute of Technology USA
10 University of Michigan Ann Arbor USA

 

CALIFORNIA

 

 

 

 

ENGINEERING PROGRAMMES

Rank Institute Country
1 California Institute of Technology USA
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology USA
3 Stanford University USA
4 Imperial College London UK
5 National University Singapore Singapore
6 Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai India
7 Cornell University USA
8 Indian Institute of Technology Delhi India
9 Georgia Institute of Technology USA
10 Columbia University USA

 

WHAT STUDENTS WANT

While conducting the analysis of the best universities in the world, we ranked them according to the individual factors students consider to be a bench mark of a prestigious university. Here are the ratings according to the responses of current students of the institutes

I applied for and received a satisfactory scholarship to attend my institution

 

strong-10-1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BEST VALUE FOR MONEY

Rank Institute Country
1 Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai India
2 Indian Institute of Technology Delhi India
3 National University Singapore Singapore
4 Hong Kong University of Science & Tech Hong Kong
5 University of Tokyo Japan
6 Universitat Heidelberg Germany
7 Cornell University USA
8 IE University Spain
9 Columbia University USA
10 University of Chicago USA

 

Most teaching faculty often use innovative ways to teach subjects

 

strong-25-2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INNOVATION IN TEACHING METHODOLOGIES

Rank Institute Country
1 Princeton University USA
2 Harvard University USA
3 Stanford University USA
4 Brown University USA
5 Northwestern University USA
6 IE University Spain
7 University of Cambridge UK
8 Ecole Normale Superieure France
9 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen Germany
10 University of Chicago USA

 

Overall, I am very satisfied with my institute

strong-25-3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STUDENT SATISFACTION

Rank Institute Country
1 Stanford University USA
2 Brown University USA
3 Harvard University USA
4 University of Chicago USA
5 University of Pennsylvania USA
6 IE University Spain
7 Ecole Normale Superieure France
8 University of Oxford UK
9 Columbia University USA
10 Yale University USA

 

My institution provides very good campus support including housing

strong-10-4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CAMPUS FACILITIES

Rank Institute Country
1 Stanford University USA
2 Harvard University USA
3 Cornell University USA
4 Princeton University USA
5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology USA
6 University of Oxford UK
7 University of Cambridge UK
8 National University Singapore Singapore
9 University of Chicago USA
10 Dartmouth College USA

 

My institution has a career service cell and is well known with recruiters

strong-30-5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CAREER SERVICES

Rank Institute Country
1 Harvard University USA
2 Stanford University USA
3 Columbia University USA
4 Cornell University USA
5 University of Pennsylvania USA
6 Massachusetts Institute of Technology USA
7 Carnegie Mellon University USA
8 Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai India
9 Dartmouth College USA
10 Princeton University USA

 

My institution encourages me to participate in extra curricular activities

strong-30-6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My institution has many exchange programmes with other institutions and I have taken or will take part in such exchange programmes

strong-5-7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is sufficient international diversity in my class

strong-5-8

 

 

 

 

 

 

The programmes taught in my institute are innovative and include company visits

 

strong-5-9

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My institution encourages real life learning and helps organise internships with companies

strong-5-10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RECRUITER SATISFACTION

Rank Institute Country
1 Harvard University USA
2 University of Chicago USA
3 Stanford University USA
4 University of Pennsylvania USA
5 IE University Spain
6 Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai India
7 Hong Kong University of Science & Technology China
8 New York University USA
9 Columbia University USA
10 Carnegie Mellon University USA

 

RANKING METHODOLOGY

We chose institutes across the world after having discussions with thousands of students, recruiters and faculty. Youth Inc’s research Unit (YRU) also studied domestic rankings in various countries to find the best institutes.

shutterstock_23764178

We sent survey links to 1600 institutes and provided them with unique codes so that they could submit their responses online. Institutes were also provided links to online surveys where their current students were asked to rate specific statements that pertained to the factors considered in this ranking. Institutes also sent separate survey links to their recruiters who in turn rated the institute’s career management cell as well as student employability. Over 9000 additional recruiters were sent emails with a survey link. The recruiter list was prepared from the responses of the institutes and also included internationally reputed recruiters.
Below are the factors we considered and the overall weightage assigned to them:
• Careers, recruitment and industry viability of students – 55%
• Diversity and international outlook – 10%
• Innovation – 10%
• Campus, extracurricular activities, exchange programmes – 15%
• Money, student satisfaction – 10%

This category significantly impacts the overall score of an institute since it is the most weighted factor. One of the most important criterion to select institutes is the student’s industry viability after graduation. Recruiters were asked to list and rate the institutes that they were most likely to recruit from. They were asked the likelihood of recruiting again from the same institute and their satisfaction with the institute’s career cell. Recruiters rated students on various factors including analytical and problem solving skills, leadership potential, communication and interpersonal skills and so on. Institutes and students were also asked about the availability and functioning of a career service cell on campus and how active such a service was. We also considered what percentage of students were actually placed, both domestically and internationally, through the institute’s career service cell. Students reported the availability and ease of obtaining internships.

Diversity and International Outlook – 10%
This category looks not only at diversity of faculty but also at diversity of students in class. The international outlook includes international students that are attracted and retained by the institute. Institutes were asked to report the total number of students on campus and what percentage of them was international and could speak two or more languages. Gender diversity of the students was also considered. Institutes also reported the percentage of the faculty that were international, held a doctorate degree and accredited with their own publishing material along with the gender diversity of the faculty. Students were asked to rate the student and faculty diversity in their class.

Innovation – 10%
This category looks at the innovation used to construct and teach programmes and how the faculty engage the students; an important factor in the overall perception of an institute. We considered the different ways in which an institute constructs programmes. Institutes were asked to select from a list, the different teaching methodologies that we considered innovative – some of these included company visits, dual or multiple majors and course collaborations between different departments at the institute. Our list was made after surveying students across different campuses worldwide. Students were asked to report how satisfied they were with faculty, who use innovative ways to teach subjects.

Campus, Extracurricular activities, Exchange programmes – 15%
This category considers the support that the students receive on campus and the availability of extracurricular activities. The exchange programmes offered by the institute and how actively students are encouraged to opt for such programmes was also considered. We asked the institutes to select the different types of assistance provided by the student office or a similar body on campus. Our initial list was selected after surveying students across different campuses worldwide. Students reported if they were encouraged by the institute to participate in different extracurricular activities on campus or not. Institutes were asked to report the percentage of students that opted for exchange programs. We also considered the exchange students present on the institute’s campus itself.

Money, Student Satisfaction – 10%
This category takes into account a critical part of college education today – finances. More importantly, it touches upon how satisfied a student is with the institute. We considered students’ opinions on whether a particular institute was perceived as ‘value for money’. We also asked institutes to state the percentage of students who received some sort of funding from the institutes. Students were asked to rate their institutes on various factors including attitude of staff and professors, location, course content and so on and institutes were asked to report the graduation rate of students enrolled and what percentage of students opted to transfer out of the institution.

shutterstock_63409558

Scores
We calculated the standard deviation and standard scores (Z scores) so that we could combine and analyse the data with more accuracy and reliability. Below is a summary of the factors and the weightage given to each factor when we ranked the institutes. Each factor was made up of a set of questions. The total percentage attributed to that factor was based on the average score of the responses multiplied by the assigned weightage. The total scores were then sorted from highest to lowest. The institute with the highest score was ranked first.

Not just numbers
After we calculated the total computed scores for the institutes, we subjectively analyzed the data provided by the institutes, current students, and recruiters. If we found discrepancies in the satisfaction scores and the subjective descriptions, we omitted the data. This happened in the case of 3 institutes.

Missing Data
In a few rare occasions, some institutes did not supply data for all the questions in the survey. When data was missing which affected factors which were low-weighted such as value for money or campus support, we entered an estimate between the average and the lowest value reported by the institute. By following such a practice we did not excessively penalise an institution with a ‘zero’ for data that it could not provide. At the same time, the institute was not unduly rewarded as well.

Exclusion of Institutes
Our requirement was that at least 20% of the class (of any specific institute) should answer the student survey. Hence, some institutes were disqualified from our ranking because of lack of responses to the student survey. Institutes that did not fill out the survey reports in time Out of 1600 institutes that were contacted, 17% of the institutes did not complete the survey on time or did not respond. We used publicly available information on some of these institutes to include them in our ranking. We also contacted current students and recruiters of these institutes and compared the data we received with the data from institutes that participated in our survey.

 

Volume 4 Issue 9

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