news
campusreview.com.au
‘Greater than major nations’
Davos report lauds universities’
large research output.
M
elania Trump may have shunned
Davos, but the world’s top
universities made their presence
felt. At a Times Higher Education (THE)
event that coincided with the World
Economic Forum, it was revealed that
27 universities collectively have a larger
research output than nations like the UK,
Germany and Japan.
The Global University Leaders Forum
(GULF), comprising universities including
Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial
College London in the UK, Harvard and
Stanford in the US, Peking and Tsinghua
in China, Tokyo and Keio in Japan and,
in Europe, ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology and the École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne,
publish 7 per cent of the world’s research.
To put it another way, if they were a
nation, they would be the third biggest
research producer, behind the US
and China.
The ascent of China
Chinese universities continue
to rise up rankings.
A
lthough Singapore remains in
the lead, China is clearly the
star of this year’s Asia University
Rankings. The world superpower claims
almost one in every five places in the
over 359-strong list, published by Times
Higher Education.
In first place for the third consecutive year
was the National University of Singapore.
Indeed, it improved its performance
in all 13 measured indices across five
areas: teaching, research, citations,
international outlook and industry income.
China’s Tsinghua University claimed
the second spot, up one from last year.
A report by THE and Elsevier
documented this, as well as the following:
• Although the GULF group comprise
under 2.5 per cent of universities
in THE’s 2018 rankings, they
attract over 11 per cent of research
funding.
• GULF universities contribute 15.4 per
cent of all research cite d in worldwide
patents, second only to the US.
• In terms of business ties, they
collaborate most with Microsoft, IBM,
GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Google.
ANU was the only Australian university to
place in the top 30 of THE’s 2018 global
university rankings – it came 21st.
It is not, however, a GULF member.
This could perhaps be due to its declining
research status. Last year, the research-
based Academic Ranking of World
Universities ranked ANU 97th in the world –
behind five other Australian universities.
According to the latest statistics, Australia
is 11th in the OECD for R&D expenditure,
trailing Japan and the US but ahead of the
UK, Canada and New Zealand. ■
Rounding out the top five were China’s
Peking University, followed by the University
of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong
University of Science and Technology.
Japan, meanwhile, boasted the most
universities on the list: 89 (China, with 63,
had the second most).
Unlike Singapore and China, some
countries’ performances weren’t as clear
cut. India, Japan, Pakistan, South Korea,
Taiwan and Turkey all did better overall than
last year, though some of their universities
dropped down the list.
“South Korea’s typically strong performance
has showed signs of waning this year, while
Taiwan has suffered declines as the country
grapples with an ageing population and over-
supply of higher education,” Phil Baty, editorial
director of global rankings at Times Higher
Education said.
And while some countries produced
mixed results, others’ were plain poor. For
instance, the only Sri Lankan institution to
make the list, the University of Colombo, fell
from the 251+ band to the 301–350 band.
This is the sixth year that Times Higher
Education has exclusively ranked Asian
universities, perhaps an acknowledgement of
Asia’s growing presence in global rankings. ■
5