During this period of the year, international rankings of the best universities of the world provide students and researchers important trends in higher education, such as their reputation and procedures to quality assurance. For instance, the QS University Rankings. At the end of September, the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) also released its World University Rankings for 2016-2017.
Phil Baty, head of the rankings, reports that the method of the ranking includes scores for teaching, research, citations and international outlook. This year’s rankings of higher education institutions list:
For the first time in its 12-year history, the University of Oxford became the first higher education institution from the United Kingdom to lead this table.
However, there are some pros and cons in the trends amongst the best universities in South America, where Brazil and Chile appear on the rise in the region.
Latin America (including Central America and Mexico) includes in its rankings:
However, the state of higher education in Latin America could see some serious improvement.
Francisco Marmolejo, the World Bank’s lead tertiary education specialist, told THE that, despite the dramatic increase in higher education attainment in Latin America (the number of university students in Chile and Brazil rose 78% and 60% respectively, according to OECD figures), “the key challenge for the region going forward is ensuring that this access is “equitable” – currently most students come from high socioeconomic backgrounds – and improving the quality and relevance of education.”
He points to the case of Asia, with “the rapid internationalization of some institutions in the continent and the successful partnerships between universities and industry.”
In fact, Asian universities have risen in their subject rankings, in countries such as China and Singapore, highlighted as the country with the highest average scores.
Another significant trend is that not all universities are alike. Some have outstanding teaching and learning environment, but are lagging in international outlook; a series of schools may top the rankings in research, but their teaching environment does not equal.
Four out of the five best-ranked higher education institutions come from Brazil (Sao Paulo) and one from Mexico (The National Autonomous University of Mexico or UNAM). Chilean universities, despite being second in the region in terms of number, have lower teaching scores than the Brazilian and Mexican counterparts.
The volume, income and reputation of a country the size of Brazil are shown in these figures. Only the UNAM and the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile are the only non-brazilians with over 20 points
International Outlook
Internationalization of higher education is necessary. Times Higher Education calls this the ability to “attract undergraduates, postgraduates and faculty from all over the planet,” as they consider it key to their success on the world stage. Not only it includes international staff, students or research, but its level of international collaboration. This is the area where the sheer size of Brazilian higher education is not competitive enough.
The Monterrey Institute of Technology, in Mexico; the University of the Andes, in Colombia and the Federico Santa Maria Technical University are amongst the top higher education institutions in the region, where Chile tops the rankings with a variety of universities.
While this is part of the teaching and learning environment, we look at the stats individually as resource planning and class size is critical to optimize it and have a more in-depth and personalized student experience.
In this area, the University of Guadalajara, in Mexico, tops the Latin American ranks, followed by the Federico Santa Maria, the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, and the National University of the South, in Argentina.
As we can see, one cannot cluster a particular higher education institution’s reputation by only one dimension or area. Rather, any university has strengths, weaknesses, and areas to develop.
What do you think about these rankings? Do they reflect the quality improvement processes of your higher education institution?