Oxford Returns To The Rank Of The Best University In The World For The Seventh Year In A Row

Illustration of Oxford University. (Wikimedia Commons/Kaofenlio)

JAKARTA - The University of Oxford in England has again topped World University 2023 for the seventh year in a row, outperforming Harvard University (United States) and Cambridge University (England).

Although it still dominates the top 100 of the prestigious lists issued by Times Higher Education (THE) 2023, with 1,799 universities drawn from 104 countries around the world. The number of universities from the United States and Britain is decreasing, while the number of universities from China is increasing and the entry of universities from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

How is World University 2023 rankings calculated? The rankings provide a rigorous overview of the quality of universities, based on an analysis of 15.5 million research publications and 121 million citations from the publication, plus more than 40,000 responses to annual academic reputation surveys and hundreds of thousands of additional data points covering universities, teaching environments, international views and industrial relations, as reported by The National News Oct. 22.

The institutions measured in 13 separate performance categories provide an overview of the most comprehensive advantage among world-class research universities.

Successfully topped the list of universities in the world for the seventh time, Oxford Vice Chancellor Dame Louise Richardson said success lies in "the women and extraordinary Oxfordians whose research and teaching continue to excite our imaginations, expand our insights, cure disease and explore very difficult issues for the improvement of society."

"I'm very proud to be in touch with them," he said.

The chief science officer of THE Phil Baty said there was no room to be complacent.

"The UK university's research revenue lags behind continental colleagues like Germany and has declined this year, and some of the UK's prestigious universities have fallen in rank," he said.

"You have to run very fast to stay in the global rankings, losing place can be at risk of gradually losing access to global talent and partnerships."

While England have 'three gold' in the top 10 with Imperial College London completing the list, the United States has what may be called a silver septet, given the difficulty of capturing the top position but still occupying seven places.

However, beyond the elite rank of the Lingga League, the picture is less than profitable, with the number of US universities represented in the top 100 continuing to fall from the top 43 in 2018 to 34 this year.

The shift did little to explain about the decline in the quality of US higher education, more about the shift in global education, Baty said.

"The data are very clear: we see a real shift in power balance in the global knowledge economy, far from the traditionally dominant west world," he explained.

While the US and UK remain dominant in terms of their representation at the top of the rankings, their relative strengths are reduced.

"China is leading the strengthening in East Asia, taking more and more than the top 200 places, while the Middle East sees a real revival in higher education, with Saudi Arabia in particular making great progress, and the UAE is also strengthening."

Mr. Baty said "up the level" was "good news for the world".

"Access to high-quality education is open globally, helping to reduce the drainage brain of developing countries," he said.

"We also see more global diversity in creativity and innovation as well as more equivalent international collaboration. This should be great news for the sector, as universities lead the new ideas and breakthroughs needed to solve some of the world's biggest shared challenges, such as climate change and future pandemics," he said.

To note, Tsinghua University andking University from China became the top two universities in Asia, ranked 16 and 17 this year. Meanwhile, from ASEAN, the National University of Singapore became the highest in the region and third in Asia, after successfully ranking 19th in the world.

1. University of Oxford, UK (1)

2. Harvard University, US (2)

3. University of Cambridge, UK (5)

4. Stanford University, US (3)

5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US (5)

6. California Institute of Technology, US (6)

7.ORdy University, US (7)

8. University of California, Berkeley, US (8)

9. Yale University, US (9)

10. Imperial College London, UK (12)