World's best university in 2016? The results are out
The results are in, and the world’s elite higher education institutions have a new champion. The University of Oxford is the best university in the world, according to the results of the 2016-2017 Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
It is the first time that a university from outside the United States has topped the table. It leapfrogs last year’s number one, the California Institute of Technology, and becomes the first new number one in six years. CalTech is number two. Before we look at what this means, here’s the top 10.
This map shows the range of countries that have an institution in the table this year.
Once again, it is the US that has the most institutions in the ranking (148) followed by the United Kingdom (91), Japan (69) and China (52). But it is when you cream off the top 200 positions that you perhaps get a better picture of where the world’s truly elite universities are based.
However, although Western countries continue to dominate the top tier, Asia is becoming increasingly visible as a higher-education power. It is a trend that is well established: since the first rankings were published, Asia’s position has been steadily gaining momentum.
China (mainland) takes four places in this year’s top 200 – up from two last year. South Korea also has four, the same as last year, but every one of its top 200 institutions has climbed to a higher position. Hong Kong, for the record, has five top 200 universities, compared with three in last year’s table.
A big reason for this is money. East Asia, in particular, has invested heavily in higher education in recent years. But reputation also plays a huge part. The Times Higher Education reputation scores are allocated based on 20,000 responses from academics across the world. Year on year, more of them are naming Chinese institutions as the best universities in their field.
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