Some universities are considered among the best because of their excellent infrastructure, trained academic faculty and co curricular facilities, to facilitate overall development of young minds .The top university rankings employ carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons available, which are trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and governments.
Performance indicators are grouped into five areas:
Teaching: the learning environment (worth 30 per cent of the overall ranking score)
Research: volume, income and reputation (worth 30 per cent)
Citations: research influence (worth 30 per cent)
Industry income: innovation (worth 2.5 per cent)
International outlook: staff, students and research (worth 7.5 per cent)
1.Harvard University
The oldest academic institute in the US, it dates back to 1636 and is named after its first benefactor, John Harvard. It has the global academy’s largest financial endowment and boasts of more than 40 Nobel laureates. Its 210-acre main campus and 23 satellites house 10 faculties and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
2.University of Cambridge
Cambridge alumni loom large in the making of the modern world: Newton on laws and motion; Rutherford splitting the atom; Darwin on evolution; Turing’s prototypical computer; Crick and Watson with DNA. Founded in 1209 by Oxford scholars who quit after a dispute with the local citizenry, Cambridge now employs more than 8,500 staff and has over 18,300 students.
3.University of Oxford
Twenty-six British prime ministers, at least 30 other world leaders, 12 saints and 20 archbishops of Canterbury have been Oxonians. Oxford virtually invented college life in the 13th century. The world’s third-oldest surviving university offers approximately 12,000 undergraduates a choice of 38 colleges and six permanent private-residence halls
4.Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
In 150 years, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has produced more than 70 Nobel laureates, eight of whom are members of its current faculty. From its 168-acre Charles River campus, more than 10,000 students are instructed in architecture and planning; engineering; humanities, arts and social sciences; management; science; and health sciences and technology
5.Stanford University
Founded in 1891 by railway tycoon Leland Stanford in remembrance of his son, who died aged 16, Stanford is said to be, after Harvard, the US’ most selective university, accepting around 7 per cent of applicants. Its alumni founded corporate giants including Hewlett-Packard and Google. The world’s third-richest university, it teaches about 7,000 undergraduate and around 4,000 graduate students
6.University of California, Berkeley
Vitamin E was identified here, a lost Scarlatti opera found, the flu virus identified and America’s first no-fault divorce law drafted. A gold-rush by-product, the university by San Francisco Bay was chartered in 1868. To date, more than 20 faculty members have become Nobel laureates. Today’s student body consists of about 36,000 members, more than 10,000 of them postgraduates.
7.Princeton University
At the heart of American academic life since its charter in 1746, Princeton is one of the smallest of the private Ivy Leaguers, but can boast more than 30 Nobel laureates among its past faculty and alumni. Its 500-acre campus accommodates around 5,000 undergraduates and 2,500 postgraduates overseen by more than 1,100 academics
8.Yale University
America’s third-oldest university has nurtured five US presidents and 17 Supreme Court justices. Its endowment is worth more than $16 billion and it has around 12.5 million books in its 24 libraries. Residential colleges and mascots started here. Its Class of 2014 will contain 1,940 students, a record low three-in-40 acceptance rate.
9.California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is a highly focused science and engineering research and education institution located in Pasadena, CA. It is home to approximately 2,300 students and 300 faculties, and boasts 31 Nobel laureates among its past and current faculty and alumni. Caltech manages the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for NASA, and owns and operates a global network of astronomical observatories and research facilities
10. Columbia University
With Barack Obama among its alumni, Columbia awards the annual literary Pulitzer Prize and boasts more Nobel prizewinners than any other institution in the world. It has three undergraduate schools, 13 graduate and professional schools and one of continuing education
By Simran Jindal
Miranda House
