Dive Brief:
- The top spot in Times Higher Education’s annual ranking of the world's top research universities once again went to Caltech, which has held the position for the last five years, though the number of U.S. schools on the list has dropped.
- The Los Angeles Times reports that universities in China, Germany, and the Netherlands have advanced on the list because their governments have made considerable investments in higher education.
- The Times Higher Education ranking system values income from research, research reputation, and the number of scholarly publications, among other categories.
Dive Insight:
A range of ranking systems evaluate colleges and universities based on a number of different metrics. Where Times Higher Education preferences research prowess and international diversity on campus, US News & World Report gives a lot of weight to institutional reputation and graduation and retention rates. Payscale, on the other hand, uses alumni salary data to judge schools based on their monetary return on investment.
Every list looks different, and in some cases radically so, which is perhaps one reason why the rankings may have more critics than supporters.