QS Ranking
The latest rankings from QS show that the UK and US are
still leaders in many fields – but competition is increasing from other
international players
The University of Oxford is the UK’s major winner this year.
In taking four number-one positions, it is one of only three universities to
record world-leading performance in more than one subject, the others being
Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Over in France, the number of top-100 placements decrease
from 83 in 2016 to 66 in 2017. The country faces a number of challenges,
including funding issues and a seemingly-inexorable brain drain), which could
explain why academics responding to our survey express, on average, reduced
confidence in French institutions. The Netherlands and Germany suffer similar
threats, and are seeing similar trends.
Asia’s major player, conversely, is having no such issues.
China increases its overall share of places and its share of top-50 places
(from 65 in 2016 to 79 in 2017). The increase is, proportionally, minor –
approximately half a percentage point. But at the country level these trends
become meaningful, especially when repeated over a number of years.
When it comes to top 10 places across the 46 tables, the US
and UK between them still take just under two-thirds. China’s next frontier may
be greater representation in the top 10.
India, though, remains some way off. Though the University
of Delhi can boast the world’s 16th best development studies programme, its
success is a rare oasis in what is otherwise, for India, a top-50 desert.Subject wise
Instead, India’s priority is providing an adequate supply of
competitive higher education institutions for its rapidly growing young
population, while also raising its research profile. This year’s tables offer
some evidence of this. Twenty-eight Indian institutions are now represented
across the tables – an increase from 22 in 2016’s admittedly smaller edition –
and it sees its overall share of the 11,424 available places increase
fractionally.
However, the scale of the task is clear for the world’s
third-largest higher education system. The US, in total, has roughly four times
as many degree-granting institutions as India – but over eight times as many
ranked institutions in these tables (180 to India’s 22).
