Rankings of prestigious universities in the world according to the magazine. Ranking of world universities: the best and most prestigious educational institutions

Education is the best security for old age: this aphorism of Aristotle is more than relevant in our time. Therefore, those who really want to fully unleash their creative potential and gain maximum knowledge should try to enroll in higher education institutions, where the level of academic education is maximum. Such universities can easily include educational centers in the USA and Great Britain: we present to your attention a list of the best universities in the world according to well-known and influential rating agencies.

TOP 10: Rating of the best universities in the world according to European rating agencies

According to a number of scientific publishers, the university prepares the best engineers and IT specialists in the United States. The departments of robotics and artificial intelligence are considered leading; by the way, these scientific areas also began to be studied for the first time in this educational center.

• The key buildings of the university are connected to each other by one circular passage, the so-called “endless corridor”. Its length is 251 meters and twice a year, in November and January, it is completely illuminated by sunlight: these days are considered holidays in the educational institution;
• It was within the walls of this university, in the famous LII (Laboratory of Informatics and Artificial Intelligence), that the World Wide Web Consortium was created. It develops and creates uniform global standards for software operating in the global information network environment;
• The term "hacker" was coined by teachers at this university. They called “hackers” students who were able to find quick and effective ways to solve problems.

The most prestigious university in the United States, specializing in teaching the humanities. More than 20 thousand students receive education there every year. Harvard students included several presidents, a whole galaxy of political leaders from other countries, and many modern billionaires: for example, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.

💡 A selection of interesting facts:

• It is the oldest university in America: it was founded in 1636;
• Harvard is home to the second largest library in the United States. It is located in a 10-story building, four of which are underground;
• Since 1970, any commercial video and photography has been prohibited on university premises. This rule applies to student residence halls, dining halls, and classrooms;
• Due to the tradition that a student at an institution must pass through the main gate only twice (on entry and upon graduation), Johnston Gate is almost always closed. By the way, breaking tradition, that is, going through this gate more than twice, is considered a bad omen.

It is located in the famous Silicon Valley and is considered the best private university for training IT industry specialists. The university's students included presidents of the United States and Peru, senators, a whole galaxy of successful businessmen and brilliant scientists.

💡 A selection of interesting facts:

• The founders of the search engines Google (Sergey Brin, Larry Page) and Yahoo (Jerry Yang, David Filo) were students at Stanford University;
• If you combine the financial strength of companies founded by Stanford University graduates, the resulting economy would be among the top ten strongest economies in the world;
• The university campus consists of 77 residence halls and is called "The Farm" because it is located on the territory of a former ranch.

One of several US universities considered the main forge of highly qualified engineering personnel. On the territory of the institute there is a jet propulsion laboratory, where most of the automatic systems for NASA spacecraft are developed and produced.

💡 A selection of interesting facts:

• The university celebrates a specific holiday - “Absenteeism Day”. On this day, classes are canceled, and fourth-year students come up with various traps and devices that prevent first-year students from entering the training premises;
• The University of California and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are long-time rivals, and students from rival universities are not averse to picking on each other. One of the most successful drawings was carried out by students at the California Institute of Technology in 2005. During a ceremony in Massachusetts, the name of the university on the façade of the main building was changed with a poster. The word "Massachusetts" was covered with a banner that read, "One more." Thus, new students entered “Another Technological University”.

This is the only public educational institution on the list, and the California education center is regularly included in the list of 10 best universities. It is considered one of the best universities for training IT specialists in the world.

💡 A selection of interesting facts:

• Within the walls of this educational institution, an “invisible” bottle was invented: researchers demonstrated how acoustic effects can visually hide objects;
• This is the first university to post free lectures on video hosting: on the official YouTube channel you can find a variety of training courses from the most recognized teachers in the USA;
• The world's largest collection of items related to the life and work of Mark Twain is located in the library of this particular university.

According to legend, the university was founded by fugitive students from Oxford University who had disagreements with the residents of the city of Oxford. An eternal rival of Oxford University, with a history rich in tradition. Gives its graduates the chance to receive an excellent humanities or technical education.

💡 A selection of interesting facts:

• Arriving in the town of Cambridge and asking the question “where is the university?”, you will act rather rashly, since each of the faculties (there are 31 of them) are located in different parts of the city. To put it bluntly, Cambridge is a city and a university rolled into one;
• Newton and Darwin studied at Cambridge, and here they made their famous scientific discoveries;
• Each faculty has its own colors for educational accessories and some wardrobe items: for example, for scarves;
• At Cambridge, even the worst students were celebrated with “awards”. Until 1909, the student who did the worst in a math exam was given a huge wooden spoon: it was a meter long and its handle was shaped like an oar.

The oldest English university, scientists do not even know the exact opening date; according to rough estimates, the educational institution began its activities in the 11th century. It is considered, on a par with Cambridge, to be the most prestigious university in the UK. Many representatives of the royal dynasty and world-famous scientists studied there. Famous writers John Tolkien and Lewis Carroll were also Oxford graduates.

💡 A selection of interesting facts:

• In the Clarendon Laboratory, located on the territory of Oxford, there is a unique bell: it has been ringing continuously for more than 180 years. The experiment carried out with his participation is considered the longest in terms of time;
• Until the beginning of the 20th century, only men studied at Oxford: women began to be accepted as students starting in 1920, and single-sex education was generally abolished only in the 70s of the last century;
• 25 British Prime Ministers were Oxford students;
• You cannot apply for admission to Oxford and Cambridge at the same time: this is carefully monitored. If you choose Oxford, you will only be able to enter Cambridge next year.

Compared to other representatives of the ranking, the University of Chicago was opened relatively recently - at the end of the 19th century. But over its century-long history, it has already become famous for the large number of graduates who became Nobel laureates: in terms of their number, it ranks fourth.

💡 A selection of interesting facts:

• It is extremely difficult to become a student at this educational institution: the average chance of admission is only 7%;
• The university library is famous for several reasons. Firstly, because of its unusual appearance: the building is made in the form of an egg-shaped sphere of glass. Secondly, because of its size: its storage contains about three and a half million books! Another interesting fact: it was on the territory of the library that the movie “Divergent” was filmed;
• The educational institution is famous for its Nobel laureates in the field of physics. By the way, the world's first successful experiment in splitting the atom was carried out at the University of Chicago.

It is included in the list of the top 3 American universities belonging to the so-called “Ivy League”. There are no schools of business or law, but it produces the best architects and internationally recognized general engineers.

💡 A selection of interesting facts:

• The hospital from the TV series House is the Frist Center building, which is located on the territory of Princeton University. Albert Einstein once taught in the same building;
• Princeton University can be considered the founder of the sport of American football, because it was the students of this educational institution who first played it in 1869;
• Every student at Princeton University takes an oath upon admission to uphold the Honor Code. Under the terms of the code, the student undertakes to behave honestly during exams, not to cheat, and to report any violation of this rule. It is not surprising that for most exams, teachers are simply not in the classrooms where the tests are taken.

On a note

The Ivy League includes eight of the oldest private universities in the United States. The association received this name because this plant can be found on all old university buildings. Each training center is distinguished by the high quality of teaching knowledge, and the diplomas issued by them are recognized in almost all countries of the world.

Another representative of the Ivy League with a unique history and cultural traditions. People want to go to Yale to study the humanities and social sciences. Five American presidents graduated from this particular educational institution.

💡 A selection of interesting facts:

• It is the first university in the world to receive its own symbol. He became a bulldog named Handsome Dan. After the death of a pet, its place is taken by the next dog with the same name. The biography of the dogs is carefully recorded and published. Today, the official symbol of Yale University is the bulldog Handsome Dan XVIII: information about him and his predecessors can be found on Wikipedia, and the current symbol even has its own page on Instagram;
• The oldest humor publication in the world remains the magazine published by Yale University;
• Frisbee was invented by Yale students: the prototype of the “flying” saucers was empty sweet packaging from the Frisbee Pie Company.

The best universities in the world: what chance do foreign applicants have of enrolling in them?

The first thing we want to note is that any applicant has the opportunity to enter the best universities in the world. And it doesn’t matter where you come from: Russia, Ukraine or, for example, Zimbabwe. But you need to be a truly creative, extraordinary person and go through a very strict selection process (based on applications submitted, in most universities on our list, 9 out of 10 candidates are eliminated). You can increase your chances of admission by using the services of companies that provide assistance (for a fee) in collecting documents and data for admission to foreign universities.

On Wednesday this week, the British magazine Times Higher Education published the results of the annual global study of the best universities in the world, THE World University Rankings.

Consistent leader of the last five years, Caltech ended up in second place in the ranking. Otherwise, the top ten higher education in the world has undergone virtually no changes: positions 3 to 9 are occupied by the same universities as last year.

On the third place - Stanford University(USA). Followed by the University of Cambridge (UK, 4), Massachusetts Institute of Technology(USA, 5), Harvard University(USA, 6), Princeton University(USA, 7), Imperial College London (UK, 8). The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich retained its ninth place, managing to remain the only university not from the US or UK in the top 10. Rounds out the top ten University of California at Berkeley(USA).

This year, THE World University Rankings study includes 980 universities on the planet, which is 180 more than the previous year. The study once again demonstrated the dominance of higher education institutions in the United States and Great Britain.

So, the top 100 best universities in the world 2016-2017:

1. University of Oxford, Great Britain
2. California Institute of Technology, USA
3. Stanford University, USA
4. University of Cambridge, Great Britain
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
6. Harvard University, USA
7. Princeton University, USA
8. Imperial College London, Great Britain
9. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH Zürich), Switzerland
10-11. University of California, Berkeley, USA
University of Chicago, USA

12. Yale University, USA
13. University of Pennsylvania, USA
14.University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA, USA
15. University College London (UCL), Great Britain
16. Columbia University, USA
17. Johns Hopkins University, USA
18. Duke University, USA
19. Cornell University, USA
20. Northwestern University, USA
21. University of Michigan, USA
22. University of Toronto, Canada
23. Carnegie Mellon University, USA
24.National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore
25-26. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Great Britain
University of Washington, USA
27. University of Edinburgh, Great Britain
28. Karolinska Institute, Sweden
29. Peking University, China
30-31. Federal Polytechnical School of Lausanne (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), Switzerland
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany
32. New York University (NYU), USA
33-34. Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Tech, USA
University of Melbourne, Australia
35. Tsinghua University, China
36-38. University of British Columbia, Canada
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
King's College London, Great Britain
39. The University of Tokyo, Japan
40. Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium
41. University of California, San Diego, USA
42. McGill University, Canada
43-44. Heidelberg University, Germany
The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
45. University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
46. Technical University of Munich, Germany
47. Australian National University, Australia
48.University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
49. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong
50. University of Texas at Austin, USA
51-52. Brown University, USA
University of California, Davis, USA
53.University of Minnesota, USA
54. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
55. University of Manchester, Great Britain
56. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
57-58. Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
Washington University in St. Louis, USA
59. Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
60-62. University of Queensland, Australia
University of Southern California, USA
University of Sydney, Australia
63. University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
64. Boston University, USA
65. Wageningen University and Research Center, Netherlands
66. Higher normal school (École Normale Supérieure), France
67. University of Maryland, College Park, USA
68. Pennsylvania State University, USA
60. Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
70. Purdue University, USA
71. University of Bristol, Great Britain
72-73. Ohio State University, USA
Seoul National University, The Republic of Korea
74. Monash University, Australia
75. Free University of Berlin, Germany
76. Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
77. Leiden University, Netherlands
78-79. University of New South Wales, Australia
Rhine-Westphalian Technical University Aachen (RWTH Aachen University), Germany
80-81. University of Groningen, Netherlands
University of Pittsburgh, USA
82-85. Dartmouth College, USA
Emory University, USA
Technical University of Berlin, Germany
University of Warwick, Great Britain
86. Utrecht University, Netherlands
87. Rice University, USA
88. University of Glasgow, Great Britain
89-90. Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea
University of Tübingen, Germany
91-92. University of Helsinki, Finland
Kyoto University, Japan
93. Uppsala University, Sweden
94. Maastricht University, Netherlands
95. University of Freiburg, Germany
96-97. Durham University, Great Britain
Lund University, Sweden
98-100. Aarhus University, Denmark
University of Basel, Switzerland
University of California, Irvine, USA

The ratings will be very useful for those students, schoolchildren, Russians and foreigners who are faced with a choice of which country to study in, or for those who want to get a job abroad in the field of research, teaching and business. The first academic ranking was published by Shanghai University in 2003, and a year later the Times newspaper compiled its version of the best universities in the world. Today there are various ratings - from student to specialized, national and international. Forming a rating involves taking into account a large number of parameters, which may vary slightly:

• For example, the prestigious QS World University Rankings is compiled on the basis of 6 main characteristics: teaching (the number of Nobel Prize-winning teachers), research (the level of significance of the research for science), graduate prospects and employer ratings, the number of foreign teachers and students. An important condition for a university is the availability of postgraduate programs and undergraduate programs in at least two broad subject areas. Universities in the USA and Great Britain are considered permanent leaders in the QS rankings.
• Another respected ranking is published by the US news agency U.S.News, which is an authoritative compiler of rankings of world universities
• The already mentioned Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), compiled by an Asian agency, will be especially useful for those who want to build a career in the scientific field abroad
• The purpose of the Best Global Universities ranking is to collect all the necessary information about the research and academic reputation of universities.

The Times Higher Education magazine is known for its annual ranking of universities around the world. The World University Rankings 2018 includes 1,000 universities from around the world.

THE (Times Higher Education)

• quality of teaching: the ratio of the number of staff and students, doctors and bachelors is determined
• level of research activity: where does the university rank in advanced research and what income does it receive from it?
• degree of dissemination of knowledge and innovation: the role in the dissemination of knowledge is determined through citation
• financial indicators of universities (in order to determine the effectiveness of universities and their material base)
• international perspectives: degree of interaction with foreign institutions, number of foreign students and teachers, participation in research programs abroad.

The best universities of 2018 according to The Times Higher Education ranking

15. University of California, Los Angeles

20. Northwestern University

21. University of Michigan

22. National University of Singapore

23. University of Toronto

28. New York University

29. Peking University

Cambridge university

Cambridge opens the list of the best universities in the world. The University of Cambridge was founded in 1209, and is the fourth oldest university in the world. The University of Cambridge is located in the UK, Cambridge. The average cost of tuition at this university is $20,000. About 17 thousand students study at the university, 5 thousand of whom receive a second education. More than 15% of Cambridge University students are foreigners.

Harvard ranks second in the ranking of the best universities in the world. Harvard University was founded in 1636 and is considered the most famous university in the United States. More than 6.7 thousand students, 15 thousand graduate students study there, and 2.1 thousand teachers work there. Graduates of this university were eight US presidents (John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Rutherford Hayes, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, George W. Bush, Barack Obama), as well as 49 Nobel Prize winners and 36 Pulitzer Prize winners. Tuition at Harvard University is $40,000.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is considered one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world. In an MIT record, 77 members of the MIT community are Nobel Prize laureates. The average cost of training, including accommodation, is 55 thousand dollars. More than 4 thousand students and 6 thousand graduate students, as well as about a thousand teachers, study at MIT.

Yale University ranks fourth among the best universities in the world. It is one of the most prestigious private universities in the world. Tuition costs an average of $37,000. Yale University is located in the USA, Connecticut. Students from 110 countries study at the university, and more than 11 thousand people receive education every year. Five former US presidents studied at this university, as well as many politicians, businessmen and scientists.

Probably many have heard about Oxford University. Oxford is one of the most famous and oldest universities in the world. More than 20 thousand students study there, 25% of whom are foreigners. There are also over 4 thousand teachers at Oxford. Studying at this university will cost you on average from 10 to 25 thousand dollars, depending on the chosen specialty. Oxford also has over 100 libraries and more than 300 different student interest groups.

Imperial College London was founded in 1907 by Prince Albert. The college is located in the very center of London. It employs about 8 thousand employees, of which 1,400 are teachers. There are 14.5 thousand students studying at Imperial College, and the average cost of education, depending on the specialty, is 25-45 thousand dollars; the most expensive specialty there is considered to be the medical specialty. 14 Nobel laureates have graduated from this college.

University College London was founded in 1826. At the moment, the college ranks third in the number of foreigners studying there, and first in the number of female professors. In total, more than 22 thousand students study at the college, almost half of whom receive a second higher education, and 8 thousand are foreign students. The average cost of training is from 18 to 25 thousand dollars. 26 Nobel laureates have graduated from this college.

The University of Chicago was founded in 1890 thanks to donations from John Rockefeller. The university employs more than 2 thousand teachers, 10 thousand graduate students and 4.6 thousand students study. The university also has a library, the construction of which cost $81 million. The average cost of training is 40-45 thousand dollars. There are 79 Nobel laureates affiliated with this university.

The University of Pennsylvania was founded in 1740 as a charity school, became a college in 1755, and in 1779 was the first college to be given university status. In 1973, over 52 thousand students studied at the university. At the moment, more than 19 thousand students study at the university, and more than 3.5 thousand professors teach. The average cost of tuition at the University of Pennsylvania is $40,000.

Columbia University closes our top ranking of the best universities in the world. It is located in New York City, where it occupies an area of ​​13 hectares. Columbia University was founded in 1754. Many famous people have graduated from this university, including: 4 US presidents, nine Supreme Court judges, 97 Nobel laureates and 26 heads of other states, the list of which includes the current President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili. More than 20 thousand students study at the university, half of whom are girls. The average cost of training is 40-44 thousand dollars.

Best Universities in the World Video

Many rating agencies are involved in determining the best universities in the world, and the results of their assessments sometimes differ significantly.

To determine the best universities in the world as objectively as possible, we collected data from three world university rankings - QS, Shanghai and U.S. News.

Rankings based on which the best universities in the world are determined

The best universities in the world 2016-2017

Harvard University

- a university that has established itself as a world leader in the field of exact sciences and technologies. This is where cutting-edge research in the natural sciences and engineering takes place. MIT has produced 80 Nobel laureates and many outstanding scientists, engineers, and public figures who have changed our lives forever.

– a truly legendary educational institution, one of the oldest in Europe. The University of Cambridge was founded in 1209 and has established itself as a brilliant institution from the very beginning. No university in the world can boast as many Nobel laureates who studied within its walls as Cambridge - 88 winners of this prestigious award.

- the first educational institution opened in London. Since its creation, the university has always been at the forefront of research work. UCL alumni include the prime ministers of China and Japan, as well as Alexander Bel (inventor of the telephone), John Fleming (inventor of the vacuum tube) and Francis Crick (discoverer of the structure of the DNA molecule).