Dive Brief:
- The 2014-15 list of the best global universities, compiled by London magazine Times Higher Education, names Caltech, Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, and Cambridge as the top five universities in the world.
- Schools are ranked based on “teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook” across 13 performance indicators, according to Times.
- Universities in the United States and the UK dominate the top 20, with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the University of Toronto the only exceptions.
Dive Insight:
University rankings are used by parents and students alike in deciding college enrollment decisions, but they have been criticized across the board for the metrics and formulas they use to calculate rank. U.S. News and World Report is best-known for its ranking of United States colleges and universities. At the end of 2014, it put out its first global rankings report, naming Harvard as the top university in the world, followed by MIT, UC-Berkeley, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge, and Caltech. While the rankings are much anticipated, many educators argue they’re more harmful than good.