500 Global Best Universities by U.S. News and World Report

 Released on 27 Oct 2014

 

The inaugural U.S. News Best Global Universities rankings were produced to provide insight into how universities compare globally. As an increasing number of students are planning to enroll in universities outside of their own country, the Best Global Universities rankings – which focus specifically on schools' academic research and reputation overall and not their separate undergraduate or graduate programs – can help those students accurately compare institutions around the world.

Harvard University topped the list and Massachusetts Institute of Technology took the second spot. University of Oxford and University of Cambridge from United Kingdom were ranked at 5th and 6th position respectively while Peking and Tsinghua universities were ranked one and two respectively among the schools from China. In the global standings, Peking was 39th and Tsinghua placed 67th.

The 2015 rankings, released Tuesday, encompass the US-based magazine's top 500 institutions from 49 countries. The rankings also include region-specific lists - the University of Tokyo in Japan topped the Asia list followed by Peking University. US News has been ranking US colleges and universities for 30 years. Other publications have also issued rankings but US News is the most well-known.

Of the 500 schools ranked, the top 10 schools are based in the US and the United Kingdom. The US has a total of 134 schools among the 500. Germany follows with 42, and the United Kingdom with 38. China has 27 schools, Australia and New Zealand have a combined total of 23 and France has 22 schools in the top 500. Canada has 19 schools, Japan has 17 and South Korea has 11. These 10 countries accounted for 67% (333 schools) of the 500 Best Global Universities.
 
The indicators and their weighs used to rank these Global universities are as follows:

Ranking indicator (Weight)
Global research reputation (12.5%)
Regional research reputation (12.5%)
Publications (12.5%)
Normalized citation impact (10%)
Total citations (10%)
Number of highly cited papers (12.5%)
Percentage of highly cited papers (10%)
International collaboration (10%)
Number of Ph.D.s awarded (5%)
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic staff member (5%)

As such, before you decide to study either locally or abroad and make planning to enroll in universities, check out the various world university rankings that can help you accurately compare institutions around the world and make the informed decision to choose the right university.

Of course remember also to weight tuition cost against quality as well as affordability as international study is now very expensive that can makes life miserable if no proper planning is done.

View full report here - Best Global Universities by U.S. News and World Report

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