Harvard falls further in world university rankings

Last month, we published the results of QS-World University Rankings for the year 2012.

On October 3, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings revealed the list of top 200 universities in the world for the year 2012-13.

The global university rankings announced by Times Higher Education, an international education magazine in partnership with leading news agency Thomson Reuters, aims to judge world class universities across parameters like teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

The institutes are judged on the basis of 13 performance indicators which are grouped as follows:

• Teaching: the learning environment (worth 30 per cent of the overall ranking score)
• Research: volume, income and reputation (30 per cent)
• Citations: research influence (30 per cent)
• Industry income: innovation (2.5 per cent)
• International outlook: staff, students and research (7.5 per cent).

The United States of America dominates the list this year, taking seven of the top ten slots and 76 places in the top 200. The United Kingdom follows next with three universities in the top 10.

Among the other nations that feature in the top 100 include the Netherlands with seven universities, Australia (six universities), Canada (five), Germany and France (four each) besides the Republic of Korea with three universities among others.

Unfortunately, this year too, no Indian university features in the top 200 list.

Click NEXT to find the Times Higher Education world's top 20 universities...

According to the rankings, in 20th place is the University of Michigan.

The public university that was started in 1817 in Detroit is the state's oldest university and also the main campus.

The other two campuses include the University of Michigan, Flint and the University of Michigan, Dearborn.

The institute has an annual enrolment of over 40,000 students across various programmes specialising in dentistry, architecture, engineering, government, and medicine to name a few. It is known to spend enormously on research activities.

Next on the list is the Northwestern University, a private research institute at Number 19.

The American university which has campuses in Evanston and Chicago in Illinois, United States of America has 12 undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees.

Climbing down two places from last year's global rankings, Cornell University comes in at eighteenth place this year.

Incepted in 1865, the private Ivy League research institute is located in Ithaca, New York.

The pioneering university is known to have many firsts to its credit which include awarding the world's first degree in journalism, the country's first university degree in veterinary medicine, besides the first doctorates in electrical and industrial engineering.

The institute is known to have produced 31 Marshall Scholars, 28 Rhodes Scholars and 41 Nobel laureates among other achievers.

Britain's University College London is ranked at Number 17.

Established in 1826, it was the first university in the country to admit women on equal terms with men.

Currently, it offers a vast range of disciplines that range from arts and humanities to brain sciences, engineering, law, mathematics and medicine.

At Number 16 is the Johns Hopkins University.

Named after the philanthropist John Hopkins, the institute was founded on January 22, 1876.

It has two undergraduate and five graduate divisions offering programmes in engineering, arts, nursing, science and advanced international studies and enrols over 20,000 students annually.

Next up is the Philadelphia-based University of Pennyslvania.

Established in the year 1740, it is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the country.

It has a history of firsts which includes starting the Perelman School of Medicine, North America's first school of medicine in 1765 and Wharton, the world's first collegiate business school in 1881 among other notable achievements.

It enrols over 21,000 students annually across its programmes in communication, arts and sciences, medicine, dental medicine, design, engineering and applied sciences, nursing, social policy and practice, veterinary medicine and business management.

Slipping down two spots from last year's rankings, Columbia University finds itself at Number 14 in the world rankings this year.

Although it is headquartered in New York City, it successfully operates seven Columbia Global Centres overseas namely in Amman, Beijing, Istanbul, Paris, Santiago, Nairobi and Mumbai.

It caters to over 27,00 students annually.

Although it featured among the top 10 universities last year, the University of California has slipped down to Number 13 in this year's rankings.

Started in 1882, the public research university is considered to be selective in its admission procedures, according to a report published in the Princeton Review.

The institute offers programmes in clinical psychology, psychology, fine arts, geography, mathematics, sociology, history, English, public health, political science, economics, computer science, chemistry, earth sciences and physics.

Showing considerable improvement in its rankings is the ETH Zurich-Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland which featured on Number 15 in last year's global university rankings.

Established in the year 1855, the institute offers courses in engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management.

The prestigious Yale University shows no improvement from last year's rankings and this year too, fails to make it to the top 10.

Established in 1701, the Ivy league research institute boasts of its affiliation to nine Nobel laureates among alumni, faculty and staff.

Till date, five US Presidents, 19 US Supreme Court Justices, and several foreign heads of state have graduated from here.

Rounding off the top 10 list is the University of Chicago.

Founded in 1890, it enrolls over 5,000 undergraduates and 10,000 post graduates every year to a multitude of disciplines and programmes including economics, sociology, physical sciences, law and political sciences.

So far, the university has produced 87 Nobel laureates, 49 Rhodes Scholars and nine Fields Medalists.

Inching up one place from last year, the University of California Berkeley is at Number Nine.

It was established on March 23, 1868 and amongst its 10 campuses, Berkeley is the oldest.

Over the years, among its faculty, alumni, and researchers, the university has produced 70 Nobel Prize, nine Wolf Prize, seven Fields Medallists, 15 Turing Awards, 45 MacArthur Fellowship, 20 Academy Awards, and 11 Pulitzer Prize winners.

Staying put on eighth place is the Imperial College London.

The institute was inaugurated on July 8, 1907 and houses four colleges, namely the Imperial College Faculty of Natural Sciences, the Imperial College Faculty of Medicine, the Imperial College Faculty of Engineering and the Imperial College Business School.

Sliding down from its sixth place from last year, University of Cambridge occupies the seventh spot.

The second oldest university in the country, it was founded in the year 1209.

It offers courses in arts and humanities, biological sciences, clinical medicine, physical sciences, technology, humanities and social sciences.

Cambridge comprises several self-governing and independent colleges, with their own endowments and properties, which offer streams ranging from mathematics and the sciences to humanities, music, art and literature.

In sixth place is the Princeton University.

Established in 1891, the Ivy league college offers programmes in humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering.

The institute has so far produced 35 Nobel laureates, 17 National Medal of Science winners and three National Humanities Medal winners.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is on Number Five.

Popularly also known as MIT, the private research university was founded in 1861.

It comprises five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.

Harvard University nabs the fourth place in the global university rankings.

Established in 1636, it is the oldest educational institution in the United States.

It caters to over 21,000 students annually over various graduate and postgraduate programmes and offers a staggering 46 undergraduate concentrations (majors), 134 graduate degrees and 32 professional degrees over a mind-boggling range of arts and science disciplines, as well as business studies.

Despite losing its second place from last year's rankings, the Stanford University continues to remain under the top three.

Started in 1891, the university has seven schools imparting courses in humanities, sciences, business, education, engineering, law, and medicine.

It has an annual enrolment of over 15,000 students.

The runner up this year being the University of Oxford at Number Two.

One of the oldest known institutes of learning, it comprises 38 colleges of the University of Oxford and six Permanent Private Halls, offering a wide range of disciplines -- humanities, most social sciences, some mathematical, physical, and life sciences.

Oxford's prestigious alumni list boasts of personalities and achievers from diverse fields which range from arts and entertainment to science, governance and business.

According to the Times Higher Education rankings, the California Institute of Technology is the number one university in the world for the year 2012-13.

Located in California, the institute was established in 1891.

Its 124-acre campus houses six academic divisions offering programmes in science and engineering.