THE-QS Top 200 Universities 2009

Harvard retained top spot as the best university in the world, according to the Times Higher Education – QS World University Rankings 2009. Cambridge moved up a place to 2nd best and ahead of Yale (3rd). University College London successfully made it to the top 4 position, up from 7th last year.

UK and US institutions dominated the top 20 position with 13 US institutions and 5 UK institutions in the list. Some of the good performers are:
- Princeton moved up from 12th to top 10 (#8) position.
- University of Edinburgh jumped to top 20, up three places. It is highest ranked Scottish university and 5th overall in the UK.
- McGill is the only Canadian institutions appear in the top 20, up two places to 18th in 2009.
- LSE is the top specialist social science university.

Australia has one more institutions break into the top 100 this year, they are the members of Group of Eight. The Univ of Adelaide moved up from 106th to 81st and ahead of UWA (84th). ANU is the highest rated university in the country, followed by Sydney (=36th) and Melbourne (=36th). The best rated university in New Zealand is The University of Auckland (=61st).

A total of 39 European universities listed in the top 100, compared with 36 in 2008. In Asia there are 16 institutions break into the top 100, with Univ of Tokyo (Japan) rated the best in Asia, followed by Univ of Hong Kong (#2 in Asia and #24 globally).

Following institutions successfully break into the Top 200 in 2009:
Keio University - 214th to 142nd
University of Bergen - 227th to 144th
Yonsei University - 203rd to 151st
Saint-Petersburg State University - 224th to 168th
University of Tsukuba - 216th to 174th
Univ of Malaya - 230th to 180th
RWTH Aachen Univ - 216th to 182nd
Univ of Karlsruhe - 207th to 184th
Univ of Gothenburg - 258th to 185th
Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ - 224th to 195th

The highest ranked university by country:
United States - Harvard (1st globally)
United Kingdom - Cambridge (2nd)
Switzerland - ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) - 20th
Australia - Australian National University (17th)
Canada - McGill University (18th)
Japan - Univ of Tokyo (22nd)
Hong Kong (China) - Univ of Hong Kong (24th)
France - Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris (28th)
Singapore - NUS (30th)
Ireland - Trinity College Dublin (=43rd)
Korea, South - Seoul National University (=47th)
Netherlands - University of Amsterdam (=49th)
Denmark - University of Copenhagen (51st)
Germany - Technical University of Munich (=55th)
New Zealand - University of Auckland (=61st)
Belgium - Catholic University of Leuven (65th)
Sweden - Lund University (=67th)

League Table 2009 (top 20 list):
1 Harvard University
2 University of Cambridge
3 Yale University
4 University College London
05= Imperial College London
05= University of Oxford
7 University of Chicago
8 Princeton University
9 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
10 California Institute of Technology
11 Columbia University
12 University of Pennsylvania
13 Johns Hopkins University
14 Duke University
15 Cornell University
16 Stanford University
17 Australian National University
18 McGill University
19 University of Michigan
20= University of Edinburgh
20= ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)

Source: QS Intelligence Unit (www.topuniversities.com)

* Suggested Reading:

Canadian Universities in QS Ranking 2009

Top 10 Universities in the World

Author

Kelvin Wong Loke Yuen is a highly experienced lecturer and writer. He is also a Certified Microsoft Innovative Educator with many internationally recognized certifications, including an MBA and a Postgraduate Diploma from Heriot-Watt (UK's World-Class University) and a BCom degree from Adelaide (Australia's Group of Eight University). Follow him on: LinkedIn

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