Global University Rankings 2015

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

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is sufficient international diversity in my class

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

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.

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