U.S. Falls and Asia Gains in University Rankings

Although the California Institute of Technology held on to its No.1 spot, the world university rankings issued last week by the British publication Times Higher Education make sobering reading for American academics. While the United States still dominates the rankings, taking 7 of the top 10 places, Harvard slipped from second to fourth place, pushed out by Oxford and Stanford. Over all, 51 U.S. universities in the top 200 fell in the rankings.

Asian universities were the biggest gainers, with universities in China, Singapore and Australia moving up the table, as did every university in South Korea, led by Seoul National University, which jumped to 59th place from 124th. “We’ve been talking for years about the rise of Asia,” said Phil Baty, editor of the rankings. “But this is the first solid empirical evidence.”

Institutions are ranked on 13 measures including teaching, research, citations, funding and international outlook, based on a mix of information supplied by each school and data from Thomson Reuters. According to Mr. Baty, “a lot of the metrics Asia does well in are the ones where spending more money has an immediate impact.” While overall spending on university education in the United States has declined slightly in the past year, from 2.8 to 2.6 percent of gross domestic product, countries like South Korea and China have been investing heavily in their universities.

“There have also been really severe funding cuts for state universities in the U.S.,” Mr. Baty said, pointing to the falling ranks of schools like the University of California, Davis (which went to 44 from 38), Pennsylvania State University (to 61 from 51), the University of Massachusetts (to 72 from 64) and Arizona State University (to 148 from 127).

Apart from Britain, which had three universities in the top 10 — Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College — the next highest-ranked European institution was the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, which ranked 12th. The Netherlands had 12 universities among the top 200, although its highest-ranked, the University of Leiden, was in 64th place.

“A lot of the movement in the rankings comes down to hard cash,” Mr. Baty said. “Running a world-class university is very expensive.”

— D.D. GUTTENPLAN


Moody’s gives Cambridge highest possible rating

The University of Cambridge can now call itself a straight-A student.

As the financial crisis continues to play out across Europe, Cambridge has been awarded a top AAA rating by Moody’s, according to a statement by the ratings agency last week. This makes Cambridge a safer investment than the British government, which is rated AAA with a negative outlook. Moody’s has a stable outlook on the university’s AAA rating.

Cambridge, which recently marked its 800th anniversary, was credited in Moody’s statement with an “outstanding market position” and “stable revenue.” Moody’s also praised the university for its “importance to the U.K. economy” and its global sources of money, making it less reliant on government funding than other British universities.

According to Moody’s, Cambridge can now borrow as much as £350 million, or $565 million, for investment in research facilities, accommodation and other university assets.

— MARY HUI
   

(Nytimes.com)