Top university

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Most of the top universities are in the United States and Great Britain.

A top university is understood to be a university that is characterized by the outstanding quality of its scientific maintenance. Top universities are well funded and appear at the top of the list of university rankings .

The expression “top university” can be found in the German language since around 1950. In English one speaks - descriptively - rather of research universities (" research universities ").

Country comparison

Key data from the top universities in selected countries
university country QS World
University Ranking
2020
Number of students Annual expenses Endowment / foundation assets swell
in local currency in US $ billion in local currency in US $ billion
WITH United StatesUnited States United States #1 11,574 US $ 3.6 billion 3.6 $ 16.4 billion 16.4
University of Oxford United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom # 4 23,975 £ 1.4 billion 1.8 £ 6.1 billion 8.0
ETH Zurich SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland # 6 20,607 1.8 billion CHF 1.8 424 million CHF 0.4
National University of Singapore SingaporeSingapore Singapore # 11 35,908 2.6 billion SGD 1.9 SGD 10.5 billion 1.1
Tsinghua University China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China People's Republic of China # 16 36,300 RMB ¥ 13.7 billion 3.6 ¥ 7.3 billion 1.0
Tokyo University JapanJapan Japan # 22 28,253 ¥ 258.8 billion 2.4 ¥ 11 billion 0.1
Hong Kong University Hong KongHong Kong Hong Kong # 25 29,099 HK $ 9.455 billion 1.2 HK $ 4-5 billion ~ 0.6
Australian National University AustraliaAustralia Australia # 29 20,892 AU $ 1.37 billion 0.9
University of Toronto CanadaCanada Canada # 29 61,339 $ 2.68 billion can $ 2.0 Can $ 2.84 billion 2.1
Seoul National University Korea SouthSouth Korea South Korea # 37 27,784 829.019 billion 0.7 58.9 billion ₩ 0.05
Delft University of Technology NetherlandsNetherlands Netherlands # 50 21,223 660.1 million 0.7
Université PSL FranceFrance France # 53 17,000
Technical University of Munich GermanyGermany Germany # 55 42,000 € 1.5 billion 1.7 € 30 million 0.03

German-speaking area

Germany has 30 universities that are among the top 500 in the QS World University Ranking ; that is - after the United States and Great Britain - more than in any other country on earth (as of 2019). However, no German university appears in the top 50 on this list. The TU Munich (# 61) is rated the highest , followed by the LMU Munich (# 62) and the University of Heidelberg (# 64) . The fourth highest rated German university, KIT , follows in 116th place.

Austria has five top 500 schools, of which the University of Vienna (# 175) is the highest rated, followed by the TU Vienna (# 199) and the University of Innsbruck (# 279).

Switzerland has eight top 500 universities, including two top 50 universities: ETH Zurich (# 7) and EPFL in Lausanne (# 22).

Germany

A special feature of Germany is that a large part of the top research does not take place at universities, but at non-university institutions. The Max Planck Society , the Helmholtz Association , the Fraunhofer Society , the Jülich Research Center , DESY , the German Cancer Research Center , the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research , the German Aerospace Center , the Robert Koch Institute and the Leibniz Association .

Many of these institutions are, however, linked to universities through cooperations and also participate in university teaching - for example by providing teaching staff, participating in the conception of courses and jointly operated graduate schools .

Research funding

Funding by the federal government

The German Research Foundation promotes research in special research areas , priority programs and through financial support for university graduate schools .

The excellence initiative launched by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Research Foundation in 2005 should also be seen as a contribution to research funding . Universities that are recognized for their future concept as part of this program will receive additional funds in the three-digit million range for a certain period of time. The aim of the initiative is to expand cutting-edge research and increase the international prestige of the German university system as a whole.

Not all of the German universities with high ratings in the QS World University Rankings (2020) are currently also universities of excellence; so are missing among the latter z. B. KIT (# 124), TU Berlin (# 147), Uni Freiburg (# 169) and Uni Göttingen (# 197). Conversely, the Universities of Excellence Cologne (# 308) and Bremen (# 521) are rated comparatively low in the QS ranking.

North Rhine-Westphalia

The federal states also make contributions to the promotion of cutting-edge research, such as B. North Rhine-Westphalia , which started in 2001 with the establishment of " NRW Graduate Schools ". Funds are made available to these internationally oriented graduate schools to offer top-level research in specific areas. In addition to the NRW Graduate Schools, research schools are being set up that cover other areas of focus. Both grants are awarded in a competitive process. In addition, in connection with the EU, centers such as B. funded the European Research Center for Information Systems . In addition, special focus areas of the universities are explicitly funded and additional funds are made available to the universities. In addition, there is a return program in North Rhine-Westphalia for top German researchers who work abroad. Those who pass the application process can choose a university in North Rhine-Westphalia where they want to do research in the future and receive financial incentives of up to 1.25 million euros to set up their own research team as well as non-financial support e.g. B. in job creation and search for the life partner.

Austria

As in Germany, a large part of top-level research in Austria does not take place at universities, but at non-university institutions. The institutes of the Austrian Academy of Sciences , the Austrian Institute of Technology , the Ludwig Boltzmann Society , the Research Institute for Molecular Pathology , the Austrian Institute for Economic Research and the Institute of Science and Technology should be mentioned in particular .

The Austrian universities with the highest ratings in the QS World University Rankings (2020) are the University of Vienna (# 154), the Technical University of Vienna (# 192), the University of Innsbruck (# 266), the Technical University of Graz (# 311) and the University of Linz (# 412).

With regard to the entry conditions and performance of the 22 federal universities - including the four medical and six artistic universities - there is a largely egalitarian claim in Austria ("high level for everyone"). Since 2011, however, the federal government has been trying to achieve greater specialization and profiling of the various locations within the framework of an “Austrian University Plan”.

Switzerland

Top University (Switzerland)
Basel
Basel
Bern
Bern
Freiburg
Freiburg
Geneva
Geneva
Lausanne (2)
Lausanne (2)
Geneva
Geneva
Lugano
Lugano
Lucerne
Lucerne
Neuchâtel
Neuchâtel
St. Gallen
St. Gallen
Zurich (2)
Zurich (2)
Location of the Swiss universities

Switzerland has seven comprehensive universities and five specialized universities. The ETH Zurich and the ETH Lausanne are so-called federal universities, while the universities of Basel , Bern , Friborg (Freiburg i. Ü.), Geneva , Lausanne , Lucerne , Neuchâtel , St. Gallen , Zurich and the Università della Svizzera italiana in Lugano and Mendrisio are cantonal universities, which are financed primarily by the canton and only secondarily by the federal government. ETH Zurich is usually ranked among the 10 best in the world, ETH Lausanne usually among the 50 best, and the full universities of Basel, Geneva and Zurich are each ranked among the 100 best university institutions in the world. What is special about Swiss universities is their specialization.

In Switzerland there are some very research-intensive university hospitals (including Center hospitalier universitaire vaudois , University Hospital Zurich , Inselspital , Hôpitaux universitaires de Genève ). The most important non-university research institutions include the Paul Scherrer Institute , the Swiss Institute for Bioinformatics and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute .

France

Research and a further academic career after the master’s degree are generally not offered at the Grandes écoles or Grands établissements .

The most famous examples of French elite universities generally include the École normal supérieure (ENS), the Sciences Po , the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) or the École polytechnique , which mostly have subsidiary branches in various cities in France are based in Paris (or the surrounding area).

English speaking area

United Kingdom

Top University (England)
Belfast
Belfast
Birmingham
Birmingham
Bristol
Bristol
Cambridge
Cambridge
Cardiff
Cardiff
Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Glasgow
Leeds
Leeds
Liverpool
Liverpool
London (5)
London (5)
Manchester
Manchester
Newcastle
Newcastle
Nottingham
Nottingham
Oxford
Oxford
Sheffield
Sheffield
Southampton
Southampton
Warwick
Warwick
Exeter
Exeter
York
York
Durham
Durham
Universities in the United Kingdom

In a European comparison, British universities are regularly seen as leading. Traditionally regarded and especially the two oldest and best known are the English universities of Oxford and Cambridge (often mentioned together under the portmanteau Oxbridge ), British and leading universities. However, this view, which is particularly widespread abroad, is not accurate, since within England the Imperial College London in the field of medicine and engineering and the London School of Economics in the field of economics are considered leaders. In global rankings, the UK universities constitute the largest group after the US universities.

Similar to the Ivy League in the USA, the leading 24 research-intensive universities in England have come together to form the Russell Group . The members of the Russell Group are synonymous as the elite universities in Great Britain.

A shortlist of the six leading UK universities is referred to as the “ golden triangle ” between Oxford, Cambridge and London:

The Russell Group consists of the following members:

United States

Key data from selected top universities in the USA
WITH
private
Stanford
private
Harvard
private
Columbia
private
UCLA
public
Stand, sources
QS World University Ranking #1 # 2 # 3 # 16 # 32 2018/2019
Number of students Bachelor 4602 7083 6699 8931 31,543 2018/2019
Master, professional, doctorate 6972 9437 13,120 24.101 12,828
all in all 11,574 16,520 19,819 33,032 44,371
Average income of graduates aged 34 years (in US $) 98,500 84,800 81,500 75,300 65,800 2019
Financial situation of the university (in US $) Research funding from federal funds 487,434,000 710,698,000 573,157,000 647,840,000 487,846,000 2017
Donation income 469.932.565 1,097,060,553 1.418.702.174 1,009,762,418 786.650.878 2018
Assets ( Endowment ) 16.4 billion 27.7 billion 40.9 billion 10.95 billion 4.34 billion 2018/2019

University ranking

Top schools acquire their reputation, which is expressed in the relevant university rankings, primarily through the quality of their science. In the QS World University Rankings for 2020, five universities in the USA appear among the top ten: 1st Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 2nd Stanford University , 3rd Harvard University , 5th Caltech and 10th University of Chicago . The eight universities of the Ivy League and the 30 schools of the “ Public Ivy ” are traditionally considered to be top schools.

Today, those willing to study orientate themselves even more on the ranking of the respective degree program than on the university ranking. So apply e.g. For example, ambitious high school graduates with a desire to study architecture rarely go to MIT, Stanford or Harvard, but rather Cornell , Rice or Cal Poly , where the most prestigious training in this particular subject is actually offered.

Financial resources

Universities in the United States vary widely in terms of their financial resources. For example, the federal government promotes institutions with a strong research focus, both private and public schools. The research-intensive universities are also attracting donors more strongly. The state's universities raised a total of US $ 46.73 billion in donations in the 2017/2018 school year. The top 20 recipients alone received 28% of this amount, even though their student body only makes up 1.6% of all students in the United States. Universities that receive little or no money from federal tax revenue or from donors have to meet a larger proportion of their expenses from state taxes.

Canada

In Canada there are among the top universities, both public and private. In the QS World University Ranking, McGill University is the best university in the country.

The Canadian tertiary education system is essentially the same as the US. In Canada, in contrast to the USA, practically all Canadian universities are subject to a uniform state quality control system and most of them are members of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), which is why the standard of Canadian universities is considered more uniform than that in the USA.

literature

  • Ingo von Münch : "Elite universities": lighthouses or wind turbines? Reuter and Klöckner, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-921174-21-X
  • George Turner : Elite Universities and Academic Leveling. The result of the excellence competition produces a university two-class society through university-political planned economy with guillotine and steamroller . Corps Magazin (Deutsche Corpszeitung 112th volume) 4/2010, pp. 12–15

Individual evidence

  1. Treatises of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig . tape 71 . Akademie-Verlag, 1950, p. 35 .
  2. NGram Viewer. Retrieved December 8, 2019 .
  3. MIT facts. Retrieved December 6, 2019 .
  4. ^ Finance and funding. Retrieved December 6, 2019 .
  5. ^ Total annual expenditure of the University of Oxford. Retrieved December 6, 2019 .
  6. ETH Zurich in numbers. Retrieved December 6, 2019 .
  7. Annual report ETH Zurich. Retrieved December 6, 2019 .
  8. Financial Report 2019. Accessed December 6, 2019 .
  9. Some Notes on the Finances of Top Chinese Universities. Retrieved December 6, 2019 .
  10. ^ U Tokyo: Finances. Retrieved December 6, 2019 .
  11. Financial Report 2018. Accessed December 9, 2019 .
  12. Universities need to plan better for future funds. Retrieved December 9, 2019 .
  13. ^ ANU Endowment funds. Retrieved December 9, 2019 .
  14. ^ U of T shares its budget for 2018-2019. Retrieved December 10, 2019 .
  15. Endowment Report 2016/2017. Retrieved December 10, 2019 .
  16. Facts. Retrieved December 10, 2019 .
  17. ^ SNU Tops National Endowment. Retrieved December 10, 2019 .
  18. ^ Fiance. Retrieved December 9, 2019 .
  19. TUM in numbers. Retrieved December 6, 2019 .
  20. TUM University Foundation. Retrieved December 6, 2019 .
  21. a b c QS World University Rankings 2019. Accessed December 8, 2019 .
  22. ^ MPG : Looking to the Future - Supporting Junior Scientists , 2008.
  23. ^ Wissenschaftsrat : Excellence Initiative ( Memento from February 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), October 29, 2007.
  24. ^ German Research Foundation : Excellence Initiative of the Federal Government and the States , June 16, 2012.
  25. Stefan Kesselhut: German research talents: Once around the world and back. In: Spiegel Online . February 25, 2008, accessed February 14, 2015 .
  26. ^ Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas: Austria. Retrieved December 10, 2019 .
  27. ^ Page of the BMWFW on the Austrian university plan
  28. ^ University Rankings. In: Top Universities. Retrieved March 24, 2016 .
  29. ^ World University Rankings . In: Times Higher Education (THE) . August 18, 2017 ( timeshighereducation.com [accessed December 17, 2017]).
  30. ARWU World University Rankings 2017 | Academic Ranking of World Universities 2017 | Top 500 universities | Shanghai Ranking - 2017. Retrieved December 17, 2017 .
  31. Top of the world: The Swiss university system is top - without elites. In: stern.de . January 29, 2004, accessed February 14, 2015 .
  32. ^ Ed Vulliamy: Can an Ivy League work here? In: guardian.co.uk. December 2, 2002, accessed February 14, 2015 .
  33. ^ A b Jennifer O'Mahony: Four universities join elite Russell Group. In: independent.co.uk. March 12, 2012, accessed February 14, 2015 .
  34. ^ Jack Grove: Russell Group expansion leaves 1994 Group short. In: timeshighereducation.co.uk. March 12, 2012, accessed February 14, 2015 .
  35. Matthias Thibaut: British government asks students to pay. In: handelsblatt.com . October 13, 2010, accessed February 14, 2015 .
  36. Matthias Thibaut: British elite universities fear for competitiveness. In: handelsblatt.com . January 13, 2010, accessed February 14, 2015 .
  37. Jessica Shepherd: Russell Group extends membership to four more universities. In: guardian.co.uk. May 20, 2014, accessed February 14, 2015 .
  38. ^ Russell Group: Our Universities. In: russellgroup.ac.uk. Retrieved February 14, 2015 .
  39. ^ QS World University Rankings. Retrieved December 3, 2019 .
  40. MIT facts: Enrollments 2018–2019. Retrieved December 3, 2019 .
  41. ^ Stanford University: Autumn Quarter 2018-19 Enrollment. Retrieved December 3, 2019 .
  42. Harvard at a Glance. Retrieved December 3, 2019 . (without Harvard Extension School)
  43. ^ Columbia University: Back to school: College campuses on the Greenway. Retrieved December 3, 2019 .
  44. ^ UCLA: Enrollment. Accessed January 2, 2020 .
  45. ^ The Upshot: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  46. ^ Stanford University. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  47. ^ Harvard University. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  48. ^ Columbia University. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  49. ^ University of California, Los Angeles. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  50. How much federal research funding do colleges in YOUR state receive? Retrieved December 3, 2019 .
  51. 20 elite universities received 28% of college donations last year - they educate 1.6% of undergraduates. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  52. MIT endowment totaled $ 16.4 billion at the end of fiscal year 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  53. ^ Stanford releases annual financial results for investment return, endowment. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  54. ^ Harvard Reports, a $ 298-Million Surplus and Details Endowment Changes. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  55. Columbia reports 3.8 percent endowment return, lowest in the Ivy League. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  56. ^ The Quad: University endowments explained. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  57. Top Architecture Schools of 2019. Accessed November 28, 2019 .
  58. Harvard Received $ 1.4 Billion In Donations Last Year. Retrieved December 3, 2019 .
  59. ^ Information for Students ( Memento August 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada