Top 100 Most Powerful Global University Brands 2014 – Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings

The United States is for the moment a global superpower, in terms of military might and economic power. It is also a superpower in the academic world when it comes to prestige. The Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2014 has seen the powerhouse secure 46 of the top 100 spaces. It has eight places in the top 10 and occupies the top three. Harvard University comes in at the number one position, a position it has held since the tables were first published. Perhaps because American universities have been around for at least a century, they are perceived as must attend key academic institutions.

The Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2014 list is done employing a process that implies inviting the world’s academic opinion in a exclusive survey to provide one of the most influential the definitive list of the top 100 most powerful global university brands. Bellow teh top 50 Universities in the ranking

World Reputation Rankings 2014

Rank Institution Location Overall score
1 Harvard University United States
100.0
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) United States
90.4
3 Stanford University United States
74.9
4 University of Cambridge United Kingdom
74.3
5 University of Oxford United Kingdom
67.8
6 University of California, Berkeley United States
63.1
7 Princeton University United States
35.7
8 Yale University United States
30.9
9 California Institute of Technology (Caltech) United States
29.2
10 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) United States
28.8
11 The University of Tokyo Japan
27.7
12 Columbia University United States
21.6
13 Imperial College London United Kingdom
20.9
14 University of Chicago United States
20.8
15 University of Michigan United States
18.9
16 ETH Zürich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich Switzerland
17.4
17 Cornell University United States
16.9
18 Johns Hopkins University United States
16.8
19 Kyoto University Japan
15.1
20 University of Toronto Canada
14.9
21 National University of Singapore (NUS) Singapore
13.5
22 University of Pennsylvania United States
12.8
23 University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign United States
12.7
24 London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) United Kingdom
11.8
25 University College London (UCL) United Kingdom
11.5
26 Seoul National University Republic of Korea
10.9
27 New York University (NYU) United States
10.3
28 University of Wisconsin-Madison United States
10.2
29 Carnegie Mellon University United States
9.6
30 Duke University United States
9.4
31 University of Washington United States
9.0
32 University of California, San Francisco United States
8.7
33 University of British Columbia Canada
8.6
33 McGill University Canada
8.6
33 University of Texas at Austin United States
8.6
36 Tsinghua University China
8.4
37 Northwestern University United States
8.3
38 Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) United States
7.6
39 Pennsylvania State University United States
7.5
40 University of California, San Diego United States
7.2
41 Peking University China
7.0
42 Delft University of Technology Netherlands
6.3
43 The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
6.2
43 King’s College London United Kingdom
6.2
43 University of Melbourne Australia
6.2
46 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom
6.1
46 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Germany
6.1
48 Purdue University United States
6.0
49 École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland
5.8
50 Osaka University Japan

5.7

“When it comes to the planet’s most prestigious universities, the U.S. is the undisputed champion of the world, its dominance is quite extraordinary. Its universities take almost half of the top 100 places”, said Phil Baty, editor of Times Higher Education Rankings in a statement.

The reputation rankings when examined closely however reveal an interesting fact. London is able to field more top universities in a single city. A total of six universities in the United Kingdom’s capital secured places in the top 100 ranking.

The 2014 rankings, is based on 10,536 responses from 133 countries to Thomson Reuters 2013 academic reputation survey, carried out in the spring of that year. Respondents are research active scholars publish regularly and have an average of 18 years experience in the higher education field. The institutions from London that are ranked the highest are Imperial college in 13th place, followed by the London School of Economics and University College London. Kings College London is an institution to watch as it sped up to charts, to occupy 43rd place, a massive achievement from number 70.

Overall the United Kingdom, has 10 representatives the top 100, an increase by just one institution from 2013. Looking at the table you can see signs of polarization between the London/Oxford/Cambridge Golden Triangle which is located in the south-east of England and the rest of the United Kingdom where other academic institutions seem to be struggling to find their way. Overall in the United Kingdom, eight out of the 10 academic institutions all come from the Golden Triangle. Proof of this can be seen by the exits of the University of Bristol this year and the University of Leeds and the University of Sheffield in previous years.

The results will solidify London’s growing reputation as a global center for technology, research and higher education. Its universities reputations are only bound to increase. Why? A school’s reputation is important, said Simon Marginson, professor of international higher education, Institute of Education, University of London in a press release.

A university’s reputation for academic excellence is absolutely vital to its success: it drives student and faculty recruitment, international research partnerships, and helps to attract philanthropy and industrial investment. And while reputation is based on subjective opinion, in this case it is the informed, expert opinion of those in the know: experienced scholars from around the world”.

The infographic below shows movement of universities in the rankings:

images via www.timeshighereducation.co.uk