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2014 World University Rankings: ‘Worrying evidence’ of U.S. decline?

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October 1, 2014 at 4:00 p.m. EDT

The 2014 “World University Rankings” were released Wednesday (yes, there is such a thing as World University Rankings),  and the outlook for the United States is described as not good. In fact, “worrying evidence” is cited for decline in the United States (which holds 74 of the top 200 spots, down from 77 last year) and Canada as Asian schools rise in the rankings.

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Here are highlights of the rankings, officially called Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2014-15, from a news release about the results:

*California Institute of Technology holds on to the world number one spot for the fourth consecutive year, ahead of Harvard University in second and the University of Oxford in third
*Leading Asian institutions continue to rise. Asia now has 24 universities in the world top 200, up from 20 last year. Two Asian universities now make the world top 25 and six make the top 50
*Worrying evidence of decline in North America, with significant losses for both the U.S. and Canada
*U.K. loses three universities from the prestigious top 200 list
*Japan retains its position as Asia’s number one nation. But its universities lose ground against rising Asian nations, including China, Hong Kong and South Korea
*Russia is back in the world top 200 as Moscow State University reenters the elite group
*Brazil remains outside the top 200, but its leading institution, the University of São Paulo, gains ground
*Still no top-200 place for India, but it does have a new joint number-one university
*Strong performance from the Middle East and North Africa, with Turkey making major rankings gains and representation for Morocco, Iran and Israel
*The top 200 now features 28 countries, up from 26 countries last year, with Italy and Russia appearing as new entrants

Given that the United States still holds seven of the top 10 spots in the rankings (see list below), you might be wondering what the “worrying evidence” is.  You also might be wondering exactly how anybody collecting data from dozens of countries can know if that data is accurate, or that the factors that were used to determine the rankings (see below) really are objective and represent quality. Consider, for example, a data point that is called “reputation survey — teaching.” This evokes the famous U.S. News college rankings, which uses as it largest factor a survey of college and university leaders reporting on their view of their competitors. Reputation surveys as objective data?

So what’s the evidence of U.S. decline in higher education (a warning we commonly hear)?

The US continues to dominate the rankings, taking seven of the top 10 places and 15 of the top 20. But this year it has lost significant ground. It has 74 universities in the top 200, down from 77 last year. After a fairly stable performance last year, 60 percent of the US universities lost ground this year, and the nation suffered an average fall of 5.34 rankings places.
As with previous years, publicly funded US universities suffered the worst losses.

Here’s what Phil Baty, the editor of Times Higher Education World University Rankings, was quoted as saying in the release:

“The US continues to utterly dominate the global rankings, but this data provides clear evidence that its power is waning. More US universities fell down the tables than rose this year, and overall it is losing representatives among the world’s elite top 200, as major new powers in China and other parts of East Asia continue to make progress. Perhaps more alarming is that there seems to be something approaching a crisis among the traditionally prestigious US state institutions – those US universities more dependent on public funding, and playing a crucial social and economic role in their regions, are falling at a much faster rate than their richer, private counterparts. This could have serious, damaging consequences for the US’s global competitiveness in the long term.”

Well, yes, the United States did drop from 77 to 74 in the top 200. And 60 percent of U.S. universities on the list lost ground. Is it actually surprising, or cause for concern, that other countries are finally building up their higher education systems?  Given that the United States still “continues to utterly dominate the global rankings,” how concerned should we be about the rise of some Asian schools?

As you can see in the list below showing country representation in the top 200, the United States is by far the winner, with 74, compared to No. 2, the United Kingdom, with 29. Third is Germany with 12, then the Netherlands with 11 and Canada with 8 to round out the top 5. The West seems to be holding its own. Japan? Five in the top 200, just like the year before. The Republic of Korea? Four, the same number as the year before. Hong Kong? Four, one up from last year. China? Singapore stayed at two; Taiwan at one.

One thing of concern we did learn is something we knew without the rankings — that the United States has been drastically and dangerously decreasing public support for its public universities. Some states have decimated support for public institutions; Colorado, for example, lowered its support for higher education by more than 69 percent from fiscal 1980 to fiscal 2011, and in South Carolina, 66.8 percent.

Last March, the Chronicle of Higher Education published a series of stories about the drastic drop in support in the last 25 years, saying:

College students and their families, who just a decade ago paid for about one-third of the cost of their education, are on track to pay for most of it. In nearly half of the states, they already do.
Behind these changes is a fundamental shift. Public colleges, once viewed as worthy of collective investment for the greater good, are increasingly treated as vehicles delivering a personal benefit to students, who ought to foot the bill themselves.
The story of public higher education’s transition from a key national priority to an increasingly neglected special interest is untidy. It cannot be traced to any single moment in time. It cannot be laid at the feet of any one individual or ideology. Rather, it is the story of dozens and dozens of consequential moves made by individual actors across the country. They are lobbyists and activists, antitax conservatives and big-government liberals, conflicted idealists and self-preservationists. Even college leaders themselves.
They are the American public.

The top 200, from the Times Higher Education rankings (and you can find more information here):

2014-15 Rank 2013-14 Rank Institution name Country / region
1 1 California Institute of Technology United States
2 2 Harvard University United States
3 2 University of Oxford United Kingdom
4 4 Stanford University United States
5 7 University of Cambridge United Kingdom
6 5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States
7 6 Princeton University United States
8 8 University of California, Berkeley United States
9 10 Imperial College London United Kingdom
9 11 Yale University United States
11 9 University of Chicago United States
12 12 University of California, Los Angeles United States
13 14 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich Switzerland
14 13 Columbia University United States
15 15 Johns Hopkins University United States
16 16 University of Pennsylvania United States
17 18 University of Michigan United States
18 17 Duke University United States
19 19 Cornell University United States
20 20 University of Toronto Canada
21 22 Northwestern University United States
22 21 University College London United Kingdom
23 23 University of Tokyo Japan
24 24 Carnegie Mellon University United States
25 26 National University of Singapore Singapore
26 25 University of Washington United States
27 28 Georgia Institute of Technology United States
28 27 University of Texas at Austin United States
29 29 University of Illinois – Urbana United States
29 55 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Germany
29 30 University of Wisconsin Madison United States
32 31 University of British Columbia Canada
33 34 University of Melbourne Australia
34 37 École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland
34 32 London School of Economics and Political Science United Kingdom
36 39 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom
37 33 University of California, Santa Barbara United States
38 40 New York University United States
39 35 McGill University Canada
40 38 King’s College London United Kingdom
41 40 University of California, San Diego United States
42 42 Washington University Saint Louis United States
43 43 University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
44 36 Karolinska Institute Sweden
45 48 Australian National University Australia
46 46 University of Minnesota United States
46 47 University of North Carolina United States
48 45 Peking University China
49 50 Tsinghua University China
50 44 Seoul National University Korea, Republic of
51 57 Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong
52 56 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Korea, Republic of
52 58 University of Manchester United Kingdom
54 52 Brown University United States
55 52 University of California Davis United States
55 61 Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Belgium
57 50 Boston University United States
58 49 Pennsylvania State University United States
59 52 Kyoto University Japan
60 72 University of Sydney Australia
61 70 École Polytechnique France
61 76 Nanyang Technological University Singapore
63 Not ranked Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa Italy
64 67 Leiden University Netherlands
65 63 University of Queensland Australia Australia
66 60 Pohang University of Science and Technology Korea, Republic of
67 63 University of Göttingen Germany
68 59 Ohio State University United States
69 65 Rice University United States
70 68 Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg Germany
71 69 Delft University of Technology Netherlands
72 73 Erasmus University Rotterdam Netherlands
73 77 Wageningen University and Research Center Netherlands
74 79 University of Bristol United Kingdom
75 74 University of Basel Switzerland
75 70 University of Southern California United States
77 83 University of Amsterdam Netherlands
78 65 École Normale Supérieure, Paris France
79 74 Utrecht University Netherlands
80 94 Humboldt University of Berlin Germany
81 86 Free University of Berlin Germany
82 83 Michigan State University United States
83 80 Durham University United Kingdom
83 91 Monash University Australia
85 201-225 Middle East Technical University Turkey
86 103 University of Arizona United States
86 90 University of Notre Dame United States
88 93 University of California, Irvine United States
88 80 Tufts University United States
90 85 Ghent University Belgium
91 132 University of Massachusetts United States
91 78 University of Pittsburgh United States
93 80 Emory University United States
94 117 University of Glasgow United Kingdom
94 92 McMaster University Canada
96 88 Vanderbilt University United States
97 97 University of Colorado United States
98 103 Stockholm University Sweden
98 87 Technical University of Munich Germany
98 111 Uppsala University Sweden
101 98 Maastricht University Netherlands
102 62 Purdue University United States
103 100 University of Helsinki Finland
103 96 Pierre and Marie Curie University France
103 141 University of Warwick United Kingdom
103 121 University of Zürich Switzerland
107 124 University of Geneva Switzerland
107 114 Queen Mary, University of London United Kingdom
109 136 University of California, Santa Cruz United States
109 114 University of New South Wales Australia
111 117 University of St. Andrews United Kingdom
111 121 University of Sussex United Kingdom
113 106 Université de Montréal Canada
113 201-225 Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen Germany
113 100 University of York United Kingdom
116 88 Case Western Reserve University United States
117 98 University of Groningen Netherlands
118 102 Royal Holloway, University of London United Kingdom
119 123 Lund University Sweden
120 114 Université Paris-Sud France
121 95 University of Rochester United States
121 112 University of Sheffield United Kingdom
121 117 Technical University of Denmark Denmark
124 109 University of Alberta Canada
124 126 University of Cape Town South Africa
126 135 Boston College United States
126 128 University of Florida United States
126 117 Royal Institute of Technology Sweden
129 109 Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
130 112 University of Virginia United States
131 137 Lancaster University United Kingdom
132 157 University of Bern Switzerland
132 108 University of Maryland, College Park United States
132 146 University of Southampton United Kingdom
135 251-275 Dresden University of Technology Germany
136 132 University of Lausanne Switzerland
136 144 VU University Amsterdam Netherlands
138 129 Trinity College Dublin Ireland
139 199 Boğaziçi University Turkey
140 131 Radboud University Nijmegen Netherlands
141 139 Colorado School of Mines United States
141 159 Texas A&M University United States
141 125 Tokyo Institute of Technology Japan
144 106 Eindhoven University of Technology Netherlands
144 103 Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey United States
146 139 University of Leeds United Kingdom
147 164 Brandeis University United States
148 153 University of Birmingham United Kingdom
148 201-225 Sungkyunkwan University Korea, Republic of
150 148 University of California, Riverside United States
150 132 Indiana University United States
152 126 Dartmouth College United States
153 138 Aarhus University Denmark
154 148 University of Exeter United Kingdom
155 142 National Taiwan University Taiwan
156 129 RWTH Aachen University Germany
157 169 University of Liverpool United Kingdom
157 144 Osaka University Japan
157 168 University of Western Australia Australia
160 150 University of Copenhagen Denmark
160 156 École Normale Supérieure de Lyon France
162 143 University of Utah United States
163 152 University of Freiburg Germany
164 201-225 University of Adelaide Australia
165 201-225 Istanbul Technical University Turkey
165 154 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Germany
165 164 Pompeu Fabra University Spain
165 150 Tohoku University Japan
169 185 University of Miami United States
170 164 University of Antwerp Belgium
171 172 Université Catholique de Louvain Belgium
171 157 University of Nottingham United Kingdom
173 160 Georgetown University United States
173 201-225 University of Victoria Canada
175 164 University of Auckland New Zealand
175 161 University of Iowa United States
177 Not ranked Syracuse University United States
178 188 University of Aberdeen United Kingdom
178 155 Joseph Fourier University – Grenoble 1 France
180 174 University of Delaware United States
180 178 University Paris Diderot – Paris 7 France
182 146 Arizona State University United States
182 Not ranked Sabanci University Turkey
182 170 University of Vienna Austria
185 184 Northeastern University United States
186 185 University of Oslo Norway
186 172 Yeshiva University United States
188 185 University of Ottawa Canada
188 178 Stony Brook University United States
188 199 Tel Aviv University Israel
191 176 State University of New York Buffalo United States
192 201-225 City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
193 201-225 Fudan University China
193 183 Iowa State University United States
195 181 University of Bonn Germany
196 226-250 Lomonosov Moscow State University Russian Federation
196 201-225 St George’s, University of London United Kingdom
198 174 University of East Anglia United Kingdom
199 161 University of Leicester United Kingdom
200 197 Florida Institute of Technology United States
200 194 George Washington University United States

And here’s the COUNTRY REPRESENTATION IN THE TOP 200 of the  Times Higher Education World University Rankings

Country / region Institutions in WUR top 200 2014-15 Institutions in WUR top 200 in 2013-14 Difference 2013-14 to 2014-15 Highest ranked institution THE WUR 2014-15 Rank
United States 74 77 -3 California Institute of Technology 1
United Kingdom 29 31 -2 University of Oxford 3
Germany 12 10 2 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München 29
Netherlands 11 12 -1 Leiden University 64
Canada 8 7 1 University of Toronto 20
Australia 8 7 1 University of Melbourne 33
Switzerland 7 7 0 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich 13
France 7 8 -1 École Polytechnique 61
Sweden 5 5 0 Karolinska Institute 44
Japan 5 5 0 University of Tokyo 23
Turkey 4 1 3 Middle East Technical University 85
Korea, Republic of 4 4 0 Seoul National University 50
Hong Kong 4 3 1 University of Hong Kong 43
Belgium 4 5 -1 Katholieke Universiteit Leuven 55
Denmark 3 3 0 Technical University of Denmark 121
China 3 2 1 Peking University 48
Singapore 2 2 0 National University of Singapore 25
Taiwan 1 1 0 National Taiwan University 155
Spain 1 1 0 Pompeu Fabra University 165
South Africa 1 1 0 University of Cape Town 124
Russian Federation 1 0 1 Lomonosov Moscow State University 196
Norway 1 1 0 University of Oslo 186
New Zealand 1 1 0 University of Auckland 175
Italy 1 0 1 Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa 63
Israel 1 2 -1 Tel Aviv University 188
Ireland 1 2 -1 Trinity College Dublin 138
Finland 1 1 0 University of Helsinki 103
Austria 1 1 0 University of Vienna 182

Here’s the methodology, from the rankings Web site:

Methodology key facts
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2014-15 draw upon:
The indicators are:
Industry income – innovation
Teaching – the learning environment
Citations – research influence
Research – volume, income and reputation
International outlook – staff, students and research

  1. International students/total students

  2. International academic staff/total academic staff

  3. Scholarly papers with one or more international co-authors/total scholarly papers

 Times Higher Education and link to the full results and analysis at www.thewur.com

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