The world's 100 best universities

[icarus]

Or so they say. For those who buy into these kind of things. Good for watercooler (do they still have those things?) discussion if nothing else.

From Newsweek: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14321230/site/newsweek/

It's a few weeks old but I don't think its been posted yet.

[troutman]

Yay, my alma mater UBC is #31.

They neglected to mention that my other alma mater Western is #1 for babes.

Waterloo is top 100? WTF?

[looooob]

well I have degrees from two of the top 100....98 to go I guess

[@theCBE]

Originally Posted by looooob

well I have degrees from two of the top 100....98 to go I guess

Me too.. well technically I don't have the second degree yet, but I will. I was surprised to see U of A so high, I always thought of it as a great school but I always felt it didn't get much credit.

[mykalberta]

Where is the Rose Hulman Institute of Technology?

3rd best Engineering school in the US behind Cal Tech and MIT, 5th best in the world, WTF? Sure the hotties factor wont make Playboys top 10 but...

MYK

[CalgaryDesi]

University of Alberta #55.

U of A pride baby

[HitterD]

Considering this is a "global" ranking, the bias is far too much in favour of American Universities. Most of the top 20 are american Universities. They may have a great reputation in the USA, obviously, but i doubt that their global reputation is nearly as high.

BTW... I'd take McGill (#42) over U of T (#18) any day

[looooob]

Originally Posted by HitterD

Considering this is a "global" ranking, the bias is far too much in favour of American Universities. Most of the top 20 are american Universities. They may have a great reputation in the USA, obviously, but i doubt that their global reputation is nearly as high.

BTW... I'd take McGill (#42) over U of T (#18) any day

apparently these are the parameters

the number of highly-cited researchers in various academic fields, the number of articles published in Nature and Science, and the number of articles listed in the ISI Social Sciences and Arts & Humanities indices. Another 40 percent of the score came from equal parts of four measures used by the Times: the percentage of international faculty, the percentage of international students, citations per faculty member (using ISI data), and the ratio of faculty to students. The final 10 percent came from library holdings (number of volumes).

its certainly possible there is NA bias in some of these measures (ie publishing in English language journals probably helps), but I would guess that none of these lists are immune to bias

[Hakan]

Originally Posted by HitterD

Considering this is a "global" ranking, the bias is far too much in favour of American Universities. Most of the top 20 are american Universities. They may have a great reputation in the USA, obviously, but i doubt that their global reputation is nearly as high.

BTW... I'd take McGill (#42) over U of T (#18) any day

Goes to show what you know.

American Universities are the best research institutions in the world right now when it comes to sheer quantity.

Also, there's really no way McGill competes with U of T. U of T is the best research university in the country. It's a fact.

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by Hakan

Goes to show what you know.

American Universities are the best research institutions in the world right now when it comes to sheer quantity.

Also, there's really no way McGill competes with U of T. U of T is the best research university in the country. It's a fact.

100%

thats why ubc/uofa/uoft rank up there because of the research.

UofA pride!

[HitterD]

Originally Posted by Hakan

Goes to show what you know.

American Universities are the best research institutions in the world right now when it comes to sheer quantity.

Also, there's really no way McGill competes with U of T. U of T is the best research university in the country. It's a fact.

Okay. I'll buy that. You seem to be looking at this from a research angle, and I can't argue with that logic one bit. (okay, maybe a little)

My angle was more geared towards the quality of education. Good research universities don't always have the best Quality of Eductation for their students. U of C has very good research (especially medical), but many of their other programs severely lack in educational quality, mostly attributed to the fact that they jam 200-300 students into one lecture and call it "teaching".

U of T is quite similar in this regard. I know a number of people who have recently gone through programs at U of T and some others at McGill. The quality of instruction at McGill far exceeds U of T from what I can gather from others, because class sizes are much small, and you can actually interact with instructors.

The above aside... I can't comment on the specific rankings with regards to the aim of the linked article. The articles rankings are based mostly on a University's willingness to provide education on the entire spectrum of cultures and values, in order to prepare a student for global careers. I do not have much knowledge of these university's ability to provide such things, but I stand by my statement that the bias is towards the USA instututions. In my (limited) experience, I have found that the american educational system tends to favour "american" issues in education over global issues.

I would expect that many european institutions (and perhaps even Canadian institutions as well) could provide a much more broad eductation on global cultures and values, but I am only speculating.

You bring up research, and while it is important, it does not fully reflect the quality of education the students are receiving on the issues that the article wishes to focus on. So please do not question my knowledge based of the issue at hand merely becasue U of T is "the best research facility in the country" and "american institutions are "the best research institutions in the world right now". THe article only mentions research as part of the equation, not the sole factor in compiling these rankings.

[peter12]

I heard UofC was #101. Just missed the cut.

[pepper24]

Being an U of A alumni, it's nice to see U of A and other Cdn Universities in the top 100.

[Eastern Girl]

Shockingly, my university didn't make the cut.

Carleton U. really only has one or two good programs.

[icarus]

Originally Posted by Eastern Girl

Carleton U. really only has one or two good programs.

My friend (actually an ex) just arrived there today to start her masters. She loves it so far!

[Eastern Girl]

Originally Posted by icarus

My friend (actually an ex) just arrived there today to start her masters. She loves it so far!

I did too, when I first got there. Flash forward to my graduation, and I was thrilled to be getting the hell outta there.

What is she doing her masters in, if you don't mind my asking?

[@theCBE]

wow.. lots of UofA alum.. Go Bears !!!

[V]

Originally Posted by HitterD

My angle was more geared towards the quality of education. Good research universities don't always have the best Quality of Eductation for their students.

No ****. It was my personal experience at the U of A that there is an inverse correlation between research and quality of education. Specifically with profs, if a prof was more into research he was less into teaching, and if he wasn't really into research odds were good he was a good teacher.

[NuclearFart]

No love for U of C
________
Wendie 99

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Dominicwasalreadytaken

No ****. It was my personal experience at the U of A that there is an inverse correlation between research and quality of education. Specifically with profs, if a prof was more into research he was less into teaching, and if he wasn't really into research odds were good he was a good teacher.

I dunno, the best teacher I had last year was a candidate for the Nobel prize

UofA btw, but I can't believe UBC beat us out.