Seeing everyone on here so dismissive is simply shocking to me. If you don't like these results or don't believe them look at the overall trend folks. A decade ago there wouldn't have been the Chinese University in the top 10. Now they have half the top rankings. I take my hat off to them; I respect their achievements and if you follow the trend forward they look unstoppable.and of the people at these universities they or their parents grew up in villages without electricity with nothing. they've built out of that the ability to scratch the stars quickly. much respect let's hope this doesn't turn into a latent Cold War
"Each school’s score is based on its number of publications and citations as well as its global and regional research reputation."<p>Oh lord... one is easy to game, and the other is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So… Everyone is righty pointing out the uselessness of ranking systems. But, these are also the same kinds of ranking systems that place MIT, Cambridge, Stanford & the rest in the elite. Publication, reputation, etc. It's not about a specific ranking system either. Every ranking uses circular, subjective or self fulfilling measures. These reputations are also very long lived and carry outside of their context. Great research in biology does not really indicate great undergraduate teaching in the humanities.<p>Universities attract students, funding, press and all the other goodies with their reputations. Students then trade on these reputations. It's a big problem overall, and it doesn't have good feedback loops of the kind which will encourage universities to improve.<p>Also, the more attention the rankings get, the more they get gamed and corrupted.<p>Here's the thing, say you are looking for a place to study mechanical engineering, it will be difficult to find the new upstart schools that are doing great work. It's even harder to get employers, parents and colleagues to respect it. That's to say nothing of a course attempting to teach a subject like engineering outside the paradigm of Universities altogether.<p>It's a pickle.<p>The world is way too big for us to rely on a vague name recognition & reputation system anymore. It's too dynamic to wait for them to self correct and it's way too thirsty for better ways to train and educate to be without a dynamic system where new approaches and institutions can emerge.
The Weibuo quote in the article sums it up. Would you rather have your child go to Tsinghua or MIT? The fact is, MIT remains the most prestigious scientific and engineering school in the world, and number of published articles be damned.<p>Another metric not considered by USNWR is academic freedom. Can students and faculty at Tsinghua use Google? I don't think so. No Google Scholar, no Google Books, not even Search. How ridiculous. Without equal access to the Internet, a fair comparison is not possible. And what if a student published an article complaining about lack of access to some internet resources? End of career.<p>That said, this evaluation should be a wake up call to American educators that our formerly great academy has deteriorated, brought down by decades of decaying performance in K-12 and lack of energy and commitment in the universities, where many or most of the science and engineering graduate students are foreign born.
China only has two prestigious universities, Peking and Tsing Hua. They collect all financial and political support to make these two universities rank higher and higher, not only to save face on the international stage, but also to make sure all intelligence is under the control of Beijing. They may really have reached success in winning global reputation, but the chance for their research to turn into benefit for common people will be very small.
American education based on sales. It sells knowledge and that is why it is going downhill. Being politically correct on races is another curse. And don't talk about creativity when you students cannot do math on paper!
If it's true, as a matter of national pride, let's hope other countries join the race to have the top ranked engineering university. We could use a dozen more MIT's in the world.
It'd be more interesting to see a ranking by only the average competitiveness of their undergraduate school students, and I bet you will see lots of Chinese and Indian university on top and American Universities are not anywhere close.<p>America has so many good universities but at the same time just a small talent pool.
To those that believe that US system is rotten and ineffective and think that Chinese are doing something right because they are Chinese I can tell you only one thing.
NEVER TRUST A COMMUNIST REGIME.<p>Even if you compare millionaires to millionaires the quality of life in China is far worse than in the USA. Never trust a communist propaganda. Never ever do that. The gov and chinese in general are known for trying to save face at every occasion and will fabricate anything that can benefit them.<p>If USA and UK is so bad then why thousands of Chinese are trying to immigrate there ? In Communist regime even if you are good and talented you will become a property of the state and they will use you for their benefit. Do not expect a good quality life but constant abuse for more propaganda and mind control.<p>No wonder that massive amount of people of Hong Kong are requesting british passports. Because in China you are nothing more than a property of a regime.