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 11 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.
- Elven rankings were included: Times Higher Education World Univeristy Rankings 2021; QS Top Universities 2021; CWUR World University Rankings 2020-21; 2020 Academic Ranking of World Universities (Shanghai Ranking); RUR World University Rankings 2021; a3 ranking 2018; CWTS Leiden Ranking 2021; Reuters’ The World’s Most Innovative Universities 2019; Scimago University Ranking 2021; URAP 2020-21 World Ranking; and Webometrics July 2021 World University 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 August 2021 The World Uncensored World University Ranking:
1 – Harvard University
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning Harvard: 11/11
Average rank: 1.5 (0.4 better than April 2020)
Highest score: 1st (CWUR, ARWU, RUR, A3, Leiden, Scimago, URAP, Webometrics)
Lowest score: 3rd (THE, QS, Reuters)
Range of scores: 2
Rank change since April 2020: 0
2 – Stanford University
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning Stanford: 11/11
Average rank: 3.8 (0.3 worse than April 2020)
Highest score: 1st (Reuters)
Lowest score: 18th (Leiden)
Range of scores: 18
Rank change since April 2020: 0
3 – Oxford, University of
Country: UK
Rankings mentioning Oxford: 11/11
Average rank: 9.2 (0.5 worse than April 2020)
Highest score: 1st (THE)
Lowest score: 32nd (Reuters)
Range of scores: 32
Rank change since April 2020: 0
4 – MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning MIT: 11/11
Average rank: 9.7 (0.8 worse than April 2020)
Highest score: 1st (QS)
Lowest score: 64th (Leiden)
Range of scores: 64
Rank change since April 2020: 0
5 – Cambridge, University of
Country: UK
Rankings mentioning Cambridge: 11/11
Average rank: 9.9 (0.4 worse than April 2020)
Highest score: 3rd (ARWU, A3)
Lowest score: 25th (Leiden)
Range of scores: 23
Rank change since April 2020: 0
6 – Johns Hopkins University
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning Johns Hopkins: 11/11
Average rank: 13.5 (no change since April 2020)
Highest score: 6th (URAP)
Lowest score: 25th (QS)
Range of scores: 20
Rank change since April 2020: 0
7 – U Penn, University of Pennsylvania
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning U Penn: 11/11
Average rank: 14.3 (0.6 worse than April 2020)
Highest score: 4th (Reuters)
Lowest score: 30th (Leiden)
Range of scores: 27
Rank change since April 2020: 0
8 – UCL, University College London
Country: UK
Rankings mentioning UCL: 11/11
Average rank: 15.4 (0.1 better than April 2020)
Highest score: 4th (URAP)
Lowest score: 31st (Reuters)
Range of scores: 28
Rank change since April 2020: Up 2
9 – University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, where specified)
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning U Mich: 11/11
Average rank: 15.4 (no change since April 2020)
Highest score: 5th (Webometrics)
Lowest score: 25th (RUR)
Range of scores: 21
Rank change since April 2020: Down 1
10 – Columbia University
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning Columbia: 11/11
Average rank: 16.5 (1.0 worse than April 2020)
Highest score: 6th (CWUR)
Lowest score: 39th (Leiden)
Range of scores: 34
Rank change since April 2020: Down 1
11 – Cornell University
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning Cornell: 11/11
Average rank: 18.1 (0.4 better than April 2020)
Highest score: 9th (Reuters, Webometrics)
Lowest score: 37th (Leiden)
Range of scores: 29
Rank change since April 2020: Up 1
12 – Yale University
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning Yale: 11/11
Average rank: 18.9 (0.7 worse than April 2020)
Highest score: 8th (THE)
Lowest score: 49th (Leiden)
Range of scores: 42
Rank change since April 2020: Down 1
13 – UCLA, University of California Los Angeles
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning UCLA: 11/11
Average rank: 19.8 (1.3 worse than April 2020)
Highest score: 13th (ARWU, Reuters, Webometrics)
Lowest score: 36th (QS)
Range of scores: 24
Rank change since April 2020: 0
14 – Imperial College London
Country: UK
Rankings mentioning Imperial: 11/11
Average rank: 20.3 (1.2 better than April 2020)
Highest score: 4th (RUR)
Lowest score: 48th (Leiden)
Range of scores: 45
Rank change since April 2020: Up 2
15 – U of T, University of Toronto
Country: Canada
Rankings mentioning U of T: 11/11
Average rank: 20.5 (0.2 worse than April 2020)
Highest score: 2nd (URAP)
Lowest score: 63rd (RUR)
Range of scores: 62
Rank change since April 2020: 0
16 – Berkeley, University of California
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning Berkely: 10/11 (not in Reuters)
Average rank: 23.9 (4.1 worse than April 2020)
Highest score: 4th (Webometrics)
Lowest score: 73rd (Leiden)
Range of scores: 70
Rank change since April 2020: Down 2
17 – UW, University of Washington (Seattle, where specified)
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning UW: 11/11
Average rank: 24 (2.0 worse than April 2020)
Highest score: 5th (Reuters)
Lowest score: 72nd (QS)
Range of scores: 68
Rank change since April 2020: 0
18 – Tsinghua University
Country: China
Rankings mentioning Tsinghua: 11/11
Average rank: 27.5 (4.4 better than April 2020)
Highest score: 3rd (Scimago)
Lowest score: 71st (CWUR)
Range of scores: 69
Rank change since April 2020: Up 6
19 – Duke University
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning Duke: 10/11 (not in RUR)
Average rank: 29.6 (8.3 better than April 2020)
Highest score: 20th (THE, CWUR, Webometrics)
Lowest score: 45th (Leiden)
Range of scores: 26
Rank change since April 2020: Down 1
20 – Northwestern University
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning Northwestern: 11/11
Average rank: 30.5 (0.1 worse than April 2020)
Highest score: 15th (RUR)
Lowest score: 60th (Leiden)
Range of scores: 46
Rank change since April 2020: Up 2
Runners up:
University of Chicago (Tentative 21st)
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning U Chicago: 10/11 (not in RUR)
Average rank: 30.9 (3.0 worse than April 2020)
Highest score: 9th (QS, CWUR)
Lowest score: 121st (Leiden)
Rank change since April 2020: Down 2
University of Tokyo (Tentative 22nd)
Country: Japan
Rankings mentioning Tokyo: 11/11
Average rank: 32.3 (1.9 worse than April 2020)
Highest score: 14th (CWUR)
Lowest score: 71st (Webometrics)
Range of scores: 58
Rank change since April 2020: Up 1
UCSD, University of California San Diego (Tentative 23rd)
Country: USA
Rankings mentioning UCSD: 10/11 (not on Reuters top 100)
Average rank: 32.5 (2.5 worse than April 2020)
Highest score: 16th (Webometrics)
Lowest score: 62nd (RUR)
Range of scores: 47
Rank change since April 2020: Down 2
ETH Zürich (Tentative 24th)
Country: Switzerland
Rankings mentioning ETH Zürich: 10/11 (missing from Scimago)
Average rank: 33.7 (4.7 worse than April 2020)
Highest score: 6th (QS)
Lowest score: 77th (Leiden)
Range of scores: 72
Rank change since April 2020: Down 4
Peking University (Tentative 25th)
Country: China
Rankings mentioning Peking: 11/11
Average rank: 37.1 (1.1 better than April 2020)
Highest score: 10th (Leiden)
Lowest score: 75th (A3)
Range of scores: 66
Rank change since April 2020: Up 1
NYU, New York University (Tentative 26th)
Country: USA
Average rank: 39.1
University of Wisconsin (Madison, where specified) (Tentative 27th)
Country: USA
Average rank: 39.7
University of Melbourne (Tentative 28th)
Country: Australia
Average rank: 40.9
UBC, University of British Columbia (Tentative 29th)
Country: Canada
Average rank: 42.6
University of Edinburgh (Tentative 30th)
Country: UK
Average rank: 45.9
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”
This page is work in progress. Ultimately, TWU hopes to provide more detailed insights into the statistics for each of these universities. Bit by bit, links will be added to other sites to explain in more detail TWU’s findings.