Making a difference. That’s one of the most important goals in higher education, and technology is one of the main drivers to achieve ground-breaking changes. This is the basic premise that Reuters has taken to develop the “The Reuters 100: World’s Most Innovative Universities”, which results were published last september.
What makes a university innovative? Is having or developing the ultimate technology enough? Is it about the future leaders that are educated in the classroom? According to the World Economic Forum, “the list ranks the educational institutions doing the most to advance science, invent new technologies and help drive the global economy.”
This ranking was built by gathering data from more than 600 global organizations about academic research, and then each institution was evaluated under 10 different metrics:
This is the second year that this study is developed, and the results still are quite predictable. The World Economic Forum explains that “while individual universities move up and down the ranking, the regional breakdown remains largely the same year over year. The United States continues to dominate the list, with 46 universities in the top 100; Japan is once again the second best performing country, with nine universities. France and South Korea are tied in third, each with eight. Germany has seven ranked universities; the United Kingdom has five; Switzerland, Belgium and Israel have three; Denmark, China and Canada have two; and the Netherlands and Singapore each have one.”
Let’s leave the suspense behind. Here are the world’s Top Ten:
The World Economic Forum underlines that no university does it better than Stanford University because innovation is basically a part of their DNA. “Decade after decade, Stanford's students and faculty consistently innovate. Companies founded by Stanford alumni – including Hewlett Packard and Google – have not only become household names, but have upended existing industries and been the cornerstone of entirely new economies. A 2012 study by the university estimated that all the companies formed by Stanford entrepreneurs generate $2.7 trillion in annual revenue, which would be equivalent to the 10th largest economy in the world.”
What about European universities? Of course they are included in this list. In fact, the World Economic Forum released a special video about Europe’s 10 most innovative universities:
This division between North American and European institutions might generate some opposed opinions about it. But, what is quite clear is that technology must be an essential element of today’s higher education, not only at an academic level but also in higher education management, in order to provide the right environment to harvest innovative solutions for our society.
How is your university using technology to manage innovation? I invite you to share your ideas.