Saturday, March 08, 2008

An Interesting Ranking of World Research Universities

Wuhan University published a "2007 Ranking of World Universities on Research Competitiveness"

RankInstitutionCountryScore
1HarvardUS100.00
2University of Texas US87.49
3University of Washington (Seattle) US72.39
8University of Tokyo Japan 69.19
11University of TorontoCanada66.90
17University of CambridgeUK62.93
18University of Minnesota US 62.80
45University of Helsinki Finland 49.54
47University of Munich Germany 48.92
53University of Utrecht Netherlands 48.40
58Hebrew University JerusalemIsrael47.04
59University of LundSweden47.00
60Eth Zurich Switzerland 46.95
71 University of Sydney Australia44.94
73 University of Milan Italy44.89
75 Seoul National UniversitySouth Korea44.65
77 University of Amsterdam Netherlands44.60
83 University of Sao Paulo Brazil44.16
84 University Paris 6 France44.08
92 University of Vienna Austria43.23
97 Catholic University Leuven Belgium42.37
99 University of Copenhagen Denmark42.04
100 Louisiana State University US41.88
101 Hokkaido University Japan 41.63
116 National University of Singapore Singapore40.48
119 Moscow MV Lomonosov State University Russia40.28
125 University of Barcelona Spain39.86
135 National Taiwan University China-Taiwan38.90
146 University of Oslo Norway37.87
149University of Hong Kong China-Hong Kong 37.73
161 University Nacl Autonoma Mexico Mexico 36.61
192 Beijing University China 34.57
196 Tsinghua University China 34.31
198 Chinese University Hong Kong China-Hong Kong 34.30
200 American College of CardiologyUS34.29
201 Indian Institute of Technology India 34.26
233 University of Auckland New Zealand 32.06
248 Zhejiang University China 31.03
252 Shanghai Jiao Tong University China 30.67
257 Fudan University China 30.45
271 Nanjing University China 29.87
273 University of Science & Technology of China China 29.86
286 Hong Kong University of Science & Technology China-Hong Kong 29.16
288 University of Buenos Aires Argentina 29.05
295 National Cheng Kung University China-Taiwan 28.56
300 University of HoustonUS28.38
301 University of Toulouse 3 France 28.38
307 University of Warsaw Poland 27.80
308 University of Athens Greece 27.68
320 City University of Hong Kong China-Hong Kong 27.20
353 University of Cape Town South Africa 25.78
357 University of Chile Chile 25.61
367 Hong Kong Polytech University China-Hong Kong 25.15
382 Jilin University China 24.29
387 National Tsinghua University China-Taiwan 24.16
393 National Chiao Tung University China-Taiwan 23.82
398 University Ljubljana Yugoslavia
23.60
400 University of Bremen Germany 23.49
401 Shandong University China 23.45
404 Tianjin University China 23.29
408 Nankai University China 23.23
413 Sun Yet-sen University China 23.03
416 Wuhan University China 23.00
422 Sichuan University China 22.78
439 Huazhong University of Science & Technology China 22.40
451 National University of Ireland University College Cork Ireland 21.83
452 Lorand Eotvos University Hungary 21.80
456 Hacettepe University Turkey 21.63
467 University of Zagreb Czech Republic 21.27
470 National Central University China-Taiwan 21.13
483 Xi'an Jiao Tong University China 20.63
486 Harbin Institute of Technology China 20.50
494 Lanzhou University China20.42
498 University of Alaska US 20.26
499 University Instelling Antwerp Belgium 20.25
500 James Cook University North Queensland Australia 20.24


The distinctive feature of this ranking, in many ways sharply different than man other existing rankings, is the fact that it weighs objective measurements (such as patents or cited papers) only. For example, there's no weight for peer reputation or amount of endowment. Consequently, this ranking does not award a school for its traditional heritage or cultural impact. It reflects more ongoing active research rather than a school's potential capacity.

Using publications as the dominant factor makes this ranking favors schools that are strong in humanities and natural sciences, where people tends to publish more. This is not surprising given that the sponsoring agency, Wuhan University, belongs to this category.

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