Few factors have as much of an influence on an incoming undergraduates’ decision of which university to attend as higher education rankings. For many prospective students, prestige and reputation play some of the biggest roles in their college decision. Applying to all Ivy League schools, or all “top 10” or “top 20” schools has become a common way to go about the application process for high-performing students.
But no single ranking is flawless. Rankings such as Reuters’ “The World’s Most Innovative Universities” place emphasis on different factors than Times Higher Education’s “World University Rankings” or the University of Leiden’s ranking of scientific impact.
Because of these and many other differences, universities may score highly in some rankings but considerably lower in others. The World Uncensored decided to take a look at 9 global university rankings and see where universities end up when we combine them all.
Note how the range of scores for each individual university varies greatly. Some universities may have over 100 spots separating their highest-performing from their lowest-performing ranking.
This goes to show that, while college rankings play an incredibly important role in decisions on which institution to attend for students and faculty, as well as decisions about funding and investment, these rankings are far from perfect and the position a university comes out in depends heavily on who sets the rules of the ranking and what they think are important factors.
This new ranking is not so much intended to be just another list of colleges but instead is meant to show how different existing rankings agree and disagree about the “quality” of various institutions.
The Methodology for this ranking is as follows.
- Nine rankings were included: Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020; QS World University Rankings 2020; CWUR World University Rankings 2019-2020; ARWU 2019 (Shanghai Ranking); Round University Rankings 2019; A3 Ranking 2018; CWTS Leiden Ranking 2019; Reuters Top 100 Most Innovative Universities 2019; Scimago Institutions Ranking Higher Education 2019; URAP 2017-2018 World Ranking; and Webometrics July 2019 Ranking.
- An average was taken of the ranking of each institution in each ranking.
- The list was sorted from best (1) to worst average position on the college rankings.
- Each of the top 20 institutions on each of the rankings was included on the list. Lower-ranked institutions were included for comparison. The top 40 (averaged scores) are presented here.
- THIS IS NOT A COMPREHENSIVE LIST. Universities may be missing. The aim was to include all of the world’s top institutions – but this brings us right back to the question of how “top” is defined.
- See the note at the bottom of the page for other considerations in the ranking.
This is by no means a perfect ranking and in many ways may be “incorrect” or more flawed than the individual rankings to begin with. It is solely an experiment with data that is openly available on the internet. It should not form the basis for any decisions that will have real-world impacts. Again: this ranking (like all others) should be viewed with curiosity but also with distance and caution.
Therefore, without any further ado, here is the December 2019 The World Uncensored World University Ranking:
1 – Harvard University
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning Harvard: 9/9
Average rank: 1.9
Highest score: 1st (CWUR, ARWU, RUR, A3, Leiden, URAP, Webometrics)
Lowest score: 7th (THE)
Range of scores: 6
2 – Stanford University
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning Stanford: 9/9
Average rank: 3.6
Highest score: 1st (Reuters)
Lowest score: 11th (Leiden)
Range of scores: 10
3 – MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning MIT: 9/9
Average rank: 8.5
Highest score: 1st (QS)
Lowest score: 57th (Leiden)
Range of scores: 56
4 – Oxford, University of
Country: UK
Rankings mentioning Oxford: 9/9
Average rank: 8.6
Highest score: 1st (THE)
Lowest score: 32nd (Reuters)
Range of scores: 31
5 – Cambridge, University of
Country: UK
Rankings mentioning Cambridge: 9/9
Average rank: 10
Highest score: 3rd (THE, ARWU, A3)
Lowest score: 25th (Leiden)
Range of scores: 22
6 – Johns Hopkins University
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning Johns Hopkins: 9/9
Average rank: 13.2
Highest score: 5th (Scimago)
Lowest score: 24th (QS)
Range of scores: 19
7 – U Penn, University of Pennsylvania
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning U Penn: 9/9
Average rank: 13.5
Highest score: 4th (Reuters)
Lowest score: 24th (Leiden)
Range of scores: 20
8 – Columbia University
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning Columbia: 9/9
Average rank: 15.3
Highest score: 6th (CWUR)
Lowest score: 33rd (Leiden)
Range of scores: 27
9 – University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, where specified)
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning U Mich: 9/9
Average rank: 15.5
Highest score: 6th (Leiden, Webometrics)
Lowest score: 24th (RUR)
Range of scores: 18
10 – UCL, University College London
Country: UK
Rankings mentioning UCL: 9/9
Average rank: 15.7
Highest score: 6th (URAP)
Lowest score: 31st (Reuters)
Range of scores: 25
11 – Yale University
Country: US
Rankings mentioning Yale: 9/9
Average rank: 17.5
Highest score: 5th (RUR)
Lowest score: 46th (Leiden)
Range of scores: 41
12 – Cornell University
Country: US
Rankings mentioning Cornell: 9/9
Average rank: 17.8
Highest score: 9th (Reuters, Webometrics)
Lowest score: 39th (Leiden)
Range of scores: 30
13 – UCLA, University of California Los Angeles
Country: US
Rankings mentioning UCLA: 9/9
Average rank: 18.3
Highest score: 11th (ARWU)
Lowest score: 35th (QS)
Range of scores: 24
14 – Berkeley, University of California
Country: US
Rankings mentioning Berkely: 8/9 (not in Reuters top 100)
Average rank: 19.2
Highest score: 5th (ARWU, Webometrics)
Lowest score: 52nd (RUR)
Range of scores: 47
15 – U of T, University of Toronto
Country: Canada
Rankings mentioning U of T: 9/9
Average rank: 20.4
Highest score: 2nd (URAP)
Lowest score: 59th (RUR)
Range of scores: 57
16 – Imperial College London
Country: UK
Rankings mentioning Imperial: 9/9
Average rank: 22.2
Highest score: 3rd (RUR)
Lowest score: 58th (Webometrics)
Range of scores: 55
17 – UW, University of Washington (Seattle, where specified)
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning UW: 9/9
Average rank: 22.3
Highest score: 4th (Webometrics)
Lowest score: 68th (QS)
Range of scores: 64
18 – University of Chicago
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning U Chicago: 9/9
Average rank: 27.1
Highest score: 9th (THE)
Lowest score: 102nd (Leiden)
19 – University of Tokyo
Country: Japan
Rankings mentioning Tokyo: 9/9
Average rank: 29.6
Highest score: 13th (CWUR)
Lowest score: 69th (Webometrics)
Range of scores: 56
20 – Northwestern University
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning Northwestern: 9/9
Average rank: 29.7
Highest score: 15th (CWUR, RUR)
Lowest score: 53rd (Leiden)
Range of scores: 38
Runners up:
UCSD, University of California San Diego (Tentative 21st)
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning UCSD: 8/9 (not on Reuters top 100)
Average rank: 29.9
Highest score: 18th (ARWU, URAP, Webometrics)
Lowest score: 65th (RUR)
Range of scores: 47
Tsinghua University (Tentative 22nd)
Country: China
Rankings mentioning Tsinghua: 9/9
Average rank: 32.5
Highest score: 5th (Leiden)
Lowest score: 70th (CWUR)
Range of scores: 65
Duke University (Tentative 23rd)
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning Duke: 8/9 (not in RUR)
Average rank: 33.3
Highest score: 20th (THE)
Lowest score: 81st (Webometrics)
Range of scores: 61
University of Wisconsin, Madison where specified (Tentative 24th)
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning U Wisconsin: 9/9
Average rank: 34.1
Highest score: 16th (Webometrics)
Lowest score: 56th (QS)
Range of scores: 40
Pierre & Marie Curie University – Paris VI (Tentative 25th)
Country: France
Rankings mentioning Paris VI: 2/9 (not in THE, QS, CWUR, ARWU, A3, Leiden, Reuters, Scimago, Webometrics)
Average rank: 35
Highest score: 4th (URAP)
Lowest score: 66th (RUR)
Range of scores: 62
ETH Zürich (Tentative 26th)
Country: Switzerland
Rankings mentioning ETH Zürich: 9/9
Average rank: 35.9
Highest score: 6th (QS)
Lowest score: 104th (Scimago)
Range of scores: 98
Peking University (Tentative 27th)
Country: China
Rankings mentioning Peking: 9/9
Average rank: 39.4
Highest score: 9th (Leiden)
Lowest score: 75th (A3)
Range of scores: 66
UBC, University of British Columbia (Tentative 28th)
Country: Canada
Rankings mentioning UBC: 9/9
Average rank: 39.7
Highest score: 21st (URAP)
Lowest score: 63rd (RUR)
Range of scores: 42
NYU, New York University (Tentative 29th)
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning NYU: 8/9 (not in Reuters top 100)
Average rank: 40.2
Highest score: 23rd (Webometrics)
Lowest score: 80th (Leiden)
Range of scores: 57
Caltech, California Institute of Technology (Tentative 30th)
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning Caltech: 9/9
Average rank: 40.9
Highest score: 2nd (THE, RUR)
Lowest score: 203rd (Leiden)
Range of scores: 201
UNC Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina (Tentative 31st)
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning UNC Chapel Hill: 9/9
Average rank: 44.1
Highest score: 6th (Reuters)
Lowest score: 90th (QS)
Range of scores: 84
University of Texas, Austin where specified (Tentative 32nd)
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning UT: 8/9 (not in RUR)
Average rank: 44.2
Highest score: 11th (Reuters)
Lowest score: 70th (Leiden)
Range of scores: 59
Edinburgh, University of (Tentative 33rd)
Country: UK
Rankings mentioning Edinburgh: 8/9 (not in Reuters top 100)
Average rank: 44.4
Highest score: 20th (QS)
Lowest score: 107th (Leiden)
Range of scores: 87
NUS, National University of Singapore (Tentative 34th)
Country: Singapore
Rankings mentioning NUS: 9/9
Average rank: 47.9
Highest score: 11th (QS)
Lowest score: 85th (CWUR)
Range of scores: 74
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities where specified (Tentative 35th)
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning U Minnesota: 9/9
Average rank: 48.5
Highest score: 17th (Webometrics)
Lowest score: 156th (QS)
Range of scores: 139
Princeton University (Tentative 36th)
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning Princeton: 9/9
Average rank: 49.6
Highest score: 6th (THE, ARWU, A3)
Lowest score: 201st (Leiden)
Copenhagen, University of (Tentative 37th)
Country: Denmark
Rankings mentioning Copenhagen: 7/9 (not in RUR, Reuters top 100)
Average rank: 50.2
Highest score: 17th (URAP)
Lowest score: 101st (THE)
Range of scores: 84
Washignton University in St. Louis (Tentative 38th)
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning St. Louis: 8/9 (not in Reuters top 10)
Average rank: 51
Highest score: 20th (RUR)
Lowest score: 108th (QS)
Range of scores: 88
Kyoto University (Tentative 39th)
Country: Japan
Rankings mentioning Kyoto: 9/9
Average rank: 55.1
Highest score: 21st (CWUR)
Lowest score: 104th (Webometrics)
Range of scores: 83
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where specified (Tentative 40th)
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning U Illinois: 9/9
Average rank: 56.9
Highest score: 20th (CWUR)
Lowest score: 169th (RUR)
Range of scores: 149
Seoul National University (Tentative 41st)
KCL, King’s College London (Tentative 42nd)
Karolinska Institute (Tentative 43rd)
USC, University of Southern California (Tentative 44th)
KU Leuven (Tentative 45th)
Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Tentative 46th)
Penn State, Pennsylvania State University (Tentative 47th)
Vanderbilt University (Tentative 48th)
University of Hong Kong (Tentative 49th)
Fudan University (Tentative 50th)
A3 only ranks the top 10 universities individually. Later, they are grouped as “top 20” or “top 50”. For these, mid-points were taken for the “rank” in the average. For example: Top 20 = “15”; Top 50 = “35”
The World Uncensored’s most up-to-date college ranking can be found here.
