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ABOUT THE WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS In both the 2004 and 2005 rankings, institutions from the United States and the United Kingdom had a virtual monopoly over the highest positions in many of the tables. One explanation for this is the pre-eminence of the English Language in modern Academia , especially in Scientific and Technological research, which allows English-speaking institutions to attract some of the best students and researchers from around the world, as well as publish more easily in leading international science journals, many of which are written in English and are rarely translated in their entirety into other languages. The highest-ranked universities in the United States also tend to have the greatest financial resources of any such institutions in the world. Harvard , which notably tops several of the lists is, by some distance, the world's richest university. Other measures, like better staffing levels, are also a consequence of the financial situation: some critics have suggested that this should be used as an inverse measure instead: a university doing comparable research with worse staffing is probably doing a better job. There have been more cynical suggestions that this bias towards English-speaking universities is due to the fact that The THES is a in China showed a similar bias, most likely for the reasons given above. GENERAL RANKINGS 2005 Top universities overall (worldwide) Top universities overall ( Europe only) Top universities overall ( North America only) Top universities overall (outside Europe and North America) SPECIFIC RANKINGS 2005 Top universities worldwide for Arts and Humanities Top universities worldwide for Biomedicine Top universities worldwide for Science Top universities worldwide for Social Sciences Top universities worldwide for Technology GENERAL RANKINGS 2004 Top universities overall (worldwide) Top universities overall ( Europe only) Top universities overall ( North America only) Top universities overall (outside Europe and North America) Top universities overall (by peer review) This ordering of universities worldwide was determined by questioning a group of 1,300 academics in 88 countries, who were asked which institutions they thought were best in the fields they felt qualified to comment on (hence the ranking was determined by a sort of Peer Review ). Although subjective, this peer review score was the single most important factor in determining overall university rankings, favoring non-Western institutions. SPECIFIC RANKINGS 2004 Top universities worldwide for Arts and Humanities Top universities worldwide for Biomedicine Top universities worldwide for Engineering and IT Top universities worldwide by research impact This ranking was determined by the number of Citation s per faculty member that universities received. Top universities worldwide for Science Top universities worldwide for Social Sciences Top universities worldwide by Staffing level This ranking was determined by the level of attention that students receive from university faculty members (as measured by the ratio of faculty members to students), as well as the number of international faculty staff and students. The meaning of the above ranking is unclear. For example, Duke scores higher than Columbia in the Faculty category, but lower in the Students category, with both universities equal in the Student/Faculty category. Duke is placed above Columbia, which might make it sensible to assume that the Faculty category carries more weight. However, Case Western Reserve scores lower on the Faculty category and higher on the Students category than Rochester, but is placed above it. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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