Reputation of UK Universities Slips as East Catches Up

The United Kingdom’s reputation as a centre of excellence for university education second only to the United States is beginning to slip and could be falling victim to the impact of government policies, the results of Times Higher Education’s 2012 World Reputation Rankings suggest. Meanwhile Asian universities are on the rise.

Published on 15 March, the magazine’s annual reputation rankings, which complement its World University Rankings, are based on the world’s largest survey of academic opinion.

While the UK has 10 universities in the top 100 (second only to the US, with 44) it has two fewer than in 2011. Both Cambridge (3rd) and Oxford (6th) are still in the top six international super-group, but some of the country's historically strongest universities have slipped in esteem.

Imperial College drops from 11th to 13th, University College London from 19th to 21st, the University of Edinburgh from 45th to 49th, and the University of Bristol from the 81-90 band to 91-100.

The University of Sheffield and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have dropped out of the top 100 altogether.

Phil Baty, rankings editor at THE, said: “This data should be uncomfortable news for the UK – our global reputation as the home of outstanding universities has been hit. Big names have slipped down the league table, and we have lost two institutions from the world top 100 altogether – we are now down to 10 representatives.

"Meanwhile all the leading Asian universities, most notably in China, are on the up.

“The messages we are sending to the world about our commitment to funding our universities, fuelled by the images of students protesting in Westminster, on top of our clampdown on overseas students, are not playing well globally," Baty continued.

“There is a clear risk that our universities, other than the élite ‘super-brands’ of Oxford and Cambridge, will be relegated from the premier league of institutions in the eyes of the world, with tangible and sustained damage. Perception is reality and it seems that we are perceived as a fading power.”

THE says that this year’s rankings highlights the emergence of an élite group of US and UK global 'super-brands', led by Harvard University and followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2nd), the University of Cambridge (3rd), Stanford University (4th), the University of California, Berkeley (5th) and the University of Oxford (6th).

This 'super-group' was identified in the first world reputation rankings last year but the gap between sixth and the rest has widened.

There is no surprise in the finding that the US dominates the ranking, with 44 universities in the world top 100 list (down from 45 last year).

But many of its universities’ reputations are slipping – the University of California, Berkeley, by only one place but other California system universities such as UC San Diego (in 36th) and UC Davis (44th) have both fallen six places, suggesting that widely publicised public funding cuts at such institutions have hurt their global image.

Power shift to the East

There is a strong performance from East Asia as a whole, with THE hailing the beginning of a power shift from West to Wast.

While Japan’s universities fare less well with the objective indicators used to compile the World University Rankings, they do well when academic prestige is isolated. Tokyo University is in the top 10, remaining in 8th place, while Kyoto University moves up to 20th.

China’s two representatives in the top 100 – Tsinghua University (up from 35th to 30th) and Peking University (up from 43 rd to 38th) have both climbed in the ranking. The University of Hong Kong enters the top 40 at 39th (up from 42nd).

The National University of Singapore has also climbed, from 27th to 23rd, while the National Taiwan University rose from the 81-90 band to the 61-70 band.

Baty commented: “While top reputations can take many years, even centuries to build, in today’s information-rich, fast-moving and interconnected world, universities cannot sit back and rely on their history. New forces are emerging and signs of declining performance among the establishment are quickly identified, shared and spread. Established reputations can be highly vulnerable.

“Our data provides clear evidence that in terms of prestige among academics around the world, there is the start of a power shift from the West to the East.”

All four Australian universities in the top 100 are on the up with Melbourne rising from 45th to 43rd. Germany’s top universities, led by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen (up from 48th to 42nd) have also enjoyed a rise in their overall prestige.

Turkey enters the top 100 for the first time, with the Middle East Technical University in the 91-100 band.

Russia, India and Ireland do not have a single university in the top 100, while Austria and Finland, who had one institution each in 2011, have both dropped out of the listing.

There are 19 countries in the top 100 (number of universities in brackets when more than one): Australia (four); Belgium; Brazil; Canada (three); China (two); France (four); Germany (four); Hong Kong (three); Israel (two); Japan (five); Republic of Korea (two); The Netherlands (five); Singapore Two); Sweden (three); Switzerland (three); Taiwan; Turkey; the UK (10); the US (44).

The reputation rankings are based on a global, invitation-only opinion poll carried out by Ipsos for THE’s rankings data supplier Thomson Reuters.

The poll attracted almost 31,000 responses from 149 countries in just two annual rounds. This year’s results are based on a record 17,554 responses from senior, published academics, up by 31% on last year’s poll of 13,388 academics.

(Source: David Jobbins - University World News)