The 2016 QS University Rankings By Region are out, bringing together the leaders in higher education across five different regions.
This year’s rankings mark a significant expansion; In Asia, 50 more universities have been included, compared to 2015. There have also been a number of methodological enhancements, including the introduction of a ‘Staff with PhD’ indicator, in order to assess the quality of teaching on offer.
There has been a lot of movement since last year’s results, with many up-and-coming institutions rising up the table. Which universities take the top spots?
Latin America
- Brazil still dominates the Latin American region. 76 Brazilian universities feature in the top 300 – more than any other nation.
- The top spot was once again taken by Universidade de São Paulo. It is also the most successful international collaborator in the region.
- Universidade Estadual de Campinas comes in second place once again.
- Chile, Colombia and Mexico all have two universities in the top 10.
- Seven universities in Venezuela feature in the top 200.
Emerging Europe and Central Asia (EECA)
- Lomonosov Moscow State University remains the leader in this region.
- Russia continues to dominate, with universities in the country presiding over the first three places.
- Charles University of the Czech Republic (4th) and Estonia’s University of Tartu (5th) make up the rest of the top 5.
- Latvia has three universities in this year’s ranking, putting the number of its representatives on a par with Bulgaria, Slovakia and Estonia.
- The region’s most international university is Ukraine’s V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University.
- Ukraine has five new universities featured this year, adding to its nine representatives from last year.
Asia
- The National University of Singapore (NUS) retains the top spot.
- Nanyang Technological University (NTU) rises one place to third.
- Two Indian universities break into the region’s top 50: IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Madras (43rd) and IIT Kanpur (48th).
- Universities in South Korea take the regional bronze medal with a total of 54 universities in the rankings this time round, moving closer to Japan’s 74 representatives.
- China leads the tables, however, with a count of 82 universities.
The Arab Region
- Only one change occurs in the top 10: Qatar University (9th) displaces Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST ), which falls from 10th to (13th) position.
- Saudi Arabia and Egypt are the two dominant nations in this region, with 30 and 26 universities featuring among the region’s top 200, respectively.
- The region’s top university is still King Fahd University of Petroleum & and Minerals (KFUPM), in Saudi Arabia.
- In second place is Lebanon’s American University of Beirut.
- The American University in Cairo, Egypt comes in fifth.
For a full breakdown, including the methodology used:
