Times Higher Education (THE) released its 2013 World Reputation Rankings Tuesday, listing the world’s top 100 universities based on brand reputation. THE issues the Thomson Reuters Academic Reputation Survey—the world’s largest invitation-only academic opinion survey—to 16,639 academics from 144 countries to assemble the list, ranking universities based on responses to subjective, action-based questions.
Harvard, MIT and Cambridge once again rounded out the top three. Here's a rundown of who else made the top 10 and how their scores looked:
1. Harvard University
Score: 100.0
Harvard is the oldest educational institution in the United States, dating back to 1636. During that time, over 40 Nobel laureates have attended the Cambridge, Mass., school, which also has the largest financial endowment. Because it received the most nominations in the survey, Harvard's score was set at 100 and all other scores were based on that—meaning No. 2 MIT, for example, received an average of 87.6% of the number of nominations that Harvard did.
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Score: 87.6
With a teaching reputation score of 83.3% and a research reputation of 89.8%, MIT lays a steady claim to the rankings’ No. 2 spot. MIT is responsible for at least 30 more Nobel laureates than Harvard, eight of who currently teach at the school. MIT has been runner-up to Harvard every year since the first world reputation rankings were announced in 2011.
3. University of Cambridge
Score: 81.3
Names associated with this 803-year-old United Kingdom institution include Newton, Rutherford, Darwin, Turing, Crick and Watson. Few schools can claim as much of an impact on the modern world as this one, which was founded by Oxford scholars who left following a dispute with locals. Is it any surprise Cambridge continually rounds out the top three?
4. University of Oxford
Score: 73.0
Dating back to the 13th Century, Oxford is the world’s third oldest surviving university. Over the years, 26 British prime ministers, 30 other world leaders, 12 saints and 20 archbishops of Canterbury have attended the school. In this year's rankings, it bounces up to the No. 4 spot from No. 6, primarily on a bump to its research reputation score over last year. The climb also places two U.K. schools in the top five. A total of nine schools from the country made the top 100.
5. University of California, Berkeley
Score: 72.4
Founded in the wake of the gold rush, UC-Berkeley ‘s notable contributions to society include more than 20 Nobel laureates, the identification of vitamin E and the flu virus, and the drafting of America’s first no-fault divorce law. It edges out rival Stanford to hold steady at No. 5, where it landed last year after a slight drop in research reputation. Three other University of California schools made the list, but Berkeley is the only one to ever crack the top five.
6. Stanford University
Score: 70.6
After claiming fifth place in 2011 and fourth place last year, Stanford falls to No. 6 this year largely on a drop in its research reputation. Still, the school is second only to Harvard in its selectiveness, admitting only about 7% of applicants, and is the third-richest university in the world. Stanford was founded by a railroad tycoon in 1891, and corporations like Google and Hewlett-Packard are among those founded by its alumni. Its position swap with Oxford is the only thing that differentiates this year's top six from last year.
7. Princeton University
Score: 36.2
Among the smallest of the private Ivy League schools, Princeton’s 500-acre campus holds only 5,000 undergraduates and 2,500 postgraduates. That still hasn’t stopped the school, which has held steady at No. 7 for the past three years, from producing over 30 Nobel laureates. In 2001, Princeton became the first U.S. university to institute a comprehensive no-loan policy, committing itself to provide need-based aid as grants instead of loans.
8. University of California, Los Angeles
Score: 35.6
Founded in 1919, UCLA is perhaps best known for its film and television school. The youngest university in the top 10, it is home to a total of five undergraduate colleges, seven professional schools and five health science schools. This is its second year in the top 10, after climbing to No. 9 last year. The school ranked thirteenth in last year's World University Rankings, also published by Times Higher Education and topped by Caltech at No. 1.
9. University of Tokyo
Score: 32.9
Tokyo Daigaku, or Todai for short, houses eleven institutes that research everything from cosmic rays to earthquakes. Fifteen Japanese prime ministers attended the school, known for a period of time between its 1877 founding and 1945 as “Imperial University.” It drops to No. 9 this year after spending the previous two years at No. 8, and is the highest-ranking school in the survey outside of the U.S. or U.K. Japan tops other Asian countries with a total of five universities in the top 100.
10. Yale University
Score: 32.8
The originator of the residential college and the mascot, and America’s third-oldest university, Yale rounds out the list’s top 10. This alma mater of five U.S. presidents and 17 Supreme Court justices boasts an endowment of over $16 billion and has an estimated 12.5 million books in its 24 libraries. Its current class (2014) also has a record low acceptance rate of three-in-40, with only 1,940 students admitted. This is its second year at No. 10 after dropping from the ninth-place ranking it held in 2011.
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