The Times' World Universtiy Ranking

The World University Rankings 2004 is Times’ first attempt to compare the world’s top universities. The ranking offers a snapshot of the leading institutions on a set of criteria that are valued around the world.

5 measures:
- Peer review
- citations per faculty member
- ability to attract international students
- ability to bring the best academics from around the world

Lessons:
- criterion tends to favour institutions in the US, and, to a lesser extend, other English-speaking counrtries.
- Peer review favours laorge uiversities with a wide range of subject coverage.
- Citations perform less well for some subject than for others. Researchers in fields of social sciences such as law and education, which are based in national systems, tend to publish in national publications
- The English language is a powerfull aid to academic excellence
- The EPFL is top in international faculty
- Many universities in continental Europe are oriented more towards teaching than their North American counterparts are. CNRS or Max Planck and Frouanhofer societies attract reasearchers who might be in universities in other countries.
- While research may be a driver of economic success, it is hard to have the first without the second
- Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are all absent
- The map of US academic exellence revealed here matches the major cnetres of US innovation, with the focus on California and New England.
- US universities gain from political idependence and the clout of their large financial endowments, which are steadily enhanced by a culture of alumni giving and a tax regime that encourages it. The vast sums these universities gring in are being spent to formidable effect.