International Universities of the World. Top world business schools

Lovers of the academic lifestyle certainly have one thing in common: they all would like to have the opportunity to study at one of the famous universities. However, only elites have access to them, for which well-known publications constantly rank educational institutions to identify the best of the best. You may also be interested in our list of the 10 most prestigious universities in the world.

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Columbia University

The famous Columbia University, which is located in New York, is one of the eight American universities that are members of the Ivy League. This is a very old and prestigious educational institution, founded in 1754 by the English King George II with the name King's College. The university is one of the 14 founding members of the Association of American Universities and is the first university in the US to offer an MD degree. 20 contemporary billionaires, 29 foreign heads of state, and 100 Nobel Prize winners have been students at Columbia University.

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The California Institute of Technology is a private institution located in Pasadena, California, USA. With a strong focus on scholarship, the university has attracted renowned scholars such as George Ellery Hale, Arthur Amos Noyes and Robert Andrews Milliken to teach. Caltech University, one of the few in the United States, is mainly focused on teaching engineering and the exact sciences. Although this is a small institution, 33 of its graduates and teachers deservedly received 34 Nobel Prizes, 5 Fields Prizes and 6 Turing Prizes.

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Yale University is a member of the American Ivy League. Located in Connecticut, USA. The famous Yale was founded in 1701 and is the third oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Its original purpose was to teach theology and ancient languages, but since 1777, the school's curriculum began to include the humanities and natural sciences. Five US Presidents and other famous politicians such as Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. studied at Yale University. 52 of its graduates are Nobel laureates.

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Princeton University

Princeton University is also in the Ivy League. Located in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. Princeton was founded in 1746, moved to Newark in 1747, and then moved to its current location in 1896, where it takes its present name, Princeton University. It is the alma mater of two US presidents, as well as numerous billionaires and foreign heads of state. Princeton is rightly considered one of the best universities in the world.

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UC Berkeley

It is one of the few public schools in the US with such a prestigious reputation. It was named one of the top six university brands for 2015. The World Academic Ranking of World Universities ranked UC Berkeley 4th in the world among all universities and first among public universities. Berkeley faculty, alumni, and researchers have received 72 Nobel Prizes, 13 Fields Prizes, 22 Turing Prizes, 45 MacArthur Fellowships, 20 Oscars, 14 Pulitzer Prizes, and 105 Olympic gold medals.

Many rating agencies are engaged in determining the best universities in the world, and the results of their assessments sometimes differ significantly.

For the most objective determination of the best universities in the world, we have collected data from three world university rankings - QS, Shanghai and U.S. News.

Ratings on the basis of which the best universities in the world are determined

Best Universities in the World 2016-2017

Harvard University

- a university that has established itself as a world leader in the field of exact sciences and technologies. It is here that cutting-edge research in the field of natural sciences and engineering is carried out. MIT has given the world 80 Nobel Laureates, as well as many outstanding scientists, engineers, and public figures who have changed our lives forever.

- a truly legendary educational institution, one of the oldest in Europe. The University of Cambridge was founded in 1209 and from the very beginning has established itself as a brilliant university. No university in the world can boast of such a number of Nobel laureates who studied within its walls as Cambridge - 88 winners of this prestigious award.

- the first educational institution opened in London. Since its inception, the university has always been at the forefront of research work. UCL alumni include the prime ministers of China and Japan, as well as Alexander Bel (inventor of the telephone), John Fleming (inventor of the vacuum tube) and Francis Crick (researcher of the structure of the DNA molecule).

On Wednesday this week, the British magazine Times Higher Education published the results of THE World University Rankings, an annual global survey of the best universities in the world.

The unchanging leader of the last five years, California Institute of Technology came in second in the rankings. Otherwise, the top ten higher education in the world has practically not changed: positions from 3 to 9 are occupied by the same universities as last year.

On the third place - Stanford University(USA). It is followed by the University of Cambridge (UK, 4), Massachusetts Institute of Technology(USA, 5), Harvard University(USA, 6), Princeton University(USA, 7), Imperial College London (UK, 8). The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich retained its ninth spot, managing to remain the only institution outside the US or UK in the top 10. Rounding out the top ten UC Berkeley(USA).

This year, THE World University Rankings study includes 980 universities of the world, which is 180 more than a year earlier. The study once again demonstrated the dominance of higher education institutions in the US and the UK.

So, the top 100 best universities in the world in 2016-2017:

1. Oxford University (University of Oxford), United Kingdom
2. California Institute of Technology, USA
3. Stanford University, USA
4. University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
6. Harvard University, USA
7. Princeton University, USA
8. Imperial College London (Imperial College London), United Kingdom
9. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich), Switzerland
10-11. University of California at Berkeley (University of California, Berkeley), USA
University of Chicago, USA

12. Yale University, USA
13. University of Pennsylvania, USA
14.University of California at Los Angeles (University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA), USA
15. University College London (UCL), United Kingdom
16. Columbia University, USA
17. Johns Hopkins University, USA
18. Duke University, USA
19. Cornell University, USA
20. Northwestern University (Northwestern University), USA
21. University of Michigan, USA
22. University of Toronto (University of Toronto), Canada
23. Carnegie Mellon University, USA
24.National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore
25-26. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), United Kingdom
University of Washington (University of Washington), USA
27. University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
28. Karolinska Institute, Sweden
29. Peking University, China
30-31. Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), Switzerland
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Munich, Germany
32. New York University (NYU), USA
33-34. Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), USA
Melbourne University (University of Melbourne), Australia
35. Tsinghua University, China
36-38. University of British Columbia, Canada
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Kings College (King's College London), United Kingdom
39. University of Tokyo (The University of Tokyo), Japan
40. Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium
41. University of California at San Diego (University of California, San Diego), USA
42. McGill University, Canada
43-44. Heidelberg University, Germany
Hong Kong University (The University of Hong Kong), Hong Kong
45. University of Wisconsin-Madison (University of Wisconsin-Madison), USA
46. Technical University of Munich (Technical University of Munich), Germany
47. Australian National University, Australia
48.University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
49. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), Hong Kong
50. University of Texas at Austin, USA
51-52. Brown University, USA
University of California, Davis, USA
53.University of Minnesota, USA
54. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
55. University of Manchester, United Kingdom
56. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
57-58. Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
Washington University in St. Louis (Washington University in St. Louis), USA
59. Delft University of Technology (Delft University of Technology), Netherlands
60-62. Queensland University (University of Queensland), Australia
University of Southern California, USA
University of Sydney, Australia
63. University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
64. Boston University, USA
65. Wageningen University and Research Center, Netherlands
66. Higher Normal School (École Normale Supérieure), France
67. University of Maryland at College Park (University of Maryland, College Park), USA
68. Pennsylvania State University, USA
60. Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
70. Purdue University, USA
71. Bristol University (University of Bristol), United Kingdom
72-73. Ohio State University, USA
Seoul National University, The Republic of Korea
74. Monash University, Australia
75. Free University of Berlin (Free University of Berlin), Germany
76. Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
77. Leiden University, Netherlands
78-79. University of New South Wales (University of New South Wales), Australia
RWTH Aachen University, Germany
80-81. University of Groningen, Netherlands
University of Pittsburgh, USA
82-85. Dartmouth College (Dartmouth College), USA
Emory University, USA
Technical University of Berlin (Technical University of Berlin), Germany
University of Warwick, United Kingdom
86. Utrecht University, Netherlands
87. Rice University, USA
88. University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
89-90. Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea
University of Tübingen, Germany
91-92. University of Helsinki, Finland
Kyoto University, Japan
93. Uppsala University, Sweden
94. Maastricht University, Netherlands
95. Freiburg University (University of Freiburg), Germany
96-97. Durham University, United Kingdom
Lund University, Sweden
98-100. Aarhus University, Denmark
Basel University (University of Basel), Switzerland
University of California, Irvine, USA

The ratings will be very useful for those students, schoolchildren, Russians and foreigners who are faced with the choice of which country to study in, or those who wish to get a job abroad in research, teaching and business. The first academic ranking was published by Shanghai University in 2003, and a year later, the Times newspaper compiled its version of the best universities in the world. To date, there are various ratings - from student to specialized, national and international. The formation of the rating involves taking into account a large number of parameters that may vary slightly:

For example, the prestigious QS World University Rankings is compiled on the basis of 6 main characteristics: teaching (the number of teachers who are Nobel Prize winners), the research part (the level of significance of ongoing research for science), prospects for graduates and employers' assessments, the number of foreign teachers and students. An important condition for a university is the availability of postgraduate programs and undergraduate studies in at least two broad subject areas. Universities in the US and the UK are considered permanent leaders in the QS ranking.
Another respected ranking is published by the US news agency U.S.News, which is an authoritative compiler of world university rankings.
The already mentioned Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), compiled by an Asian agency, will be especially useful for those who wish to build a career in the scientific field abroad
The purpose of the Best Global Universities ranking is to collect all the necessary information about the research and academic reputation of universities.

The Times Higher Education magazine is known for its annual ranking of world universities. The World University Rankings 2018 includes 1000 universities from all over the world.

THE (Times Higher Education)

the quality of teaching: the ratio of the number of staff and students, doctors and bachelors is determined
level of research activities: what place the university occupies in advanced research and what income it receives
degree of dissemination of knowledge and innovation: the role in dissemination of knowledge is determined through citation
financial indicators of universities (in order to determine the effectiveness of universities and their material base)
international perspectives: the degree of interaction with foreign institutions, the number of foreign students and teachers, participation in research programs abroad.

Best Universities 2018 According to The Times Higher Education Ranking

15 University of California, Los Angeles

20. Northwestern University

21. University of Michigan

22. National University of Singapore

23. University of Toronto

28. New York University

29. Peking University

Ratings of educational institutions are carried out by special statistical agencies. Moreover, the data can vary greatly, depending on many factors that they took into account. As a result, it turns out that in the statistical top 100 of the best universities in the world, for example, one university is in fifth place, and according to another rating, the same educational institution occupies the 20th line.

Therefore, for a more objective picture, we will consider the lists of three world agencies at once: QS, THE (Times Higher Education) and U.S. News. They are distinguished by their impartiality, as well as their authority. That is, we are looking for a kind of arithmetic mean, if such a concept can be applied to the ranking of the best universities in the world.

It’s worth clarifying right away that domestic institutions, alas, were not included in this list. All universities, which will be discussed, are located in North America and the UK. Yes, we have decent universities, but according to the aforementioned agencies, they are not good enough. One of the most serious Russian educational institutions - Lomonosov Moscow State University - takes only 95th place in the list of the best universities in the world (2017) (QS statistics). So our universities are not only up to the top ten, but up to the first fifty, they are still very far away and will take a long time to grow.

So, let's try to figure out which is the best university in the world, why it is so famous, what is studied in it and where to find it. The data may change from year to year, but the top three and even the top five, as a rule, are unchanged and hold the bar for a very, very long time. Let's designate the first ten educational institutions.

TOP of the best universities in the world:

Harvard University.
Cambridge.
Oxford.
Stanford.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
University College London.
California Institute of Technology.
Yale university.
Imperial College London.

And now we will analyze the most remarkable educational institutions in more detail.

Harvard University

Harvard remains the undisputed leader of the ranking, that is, the best university in the world. It was founded back in 1636 and is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The average number of students, according to the university, fluctuates within 21 thousand people.

Among the other top universities in the world, Harvard has the largest endowment fund, as well as a significant number of scholarships with far-reaching paychecks. Separately, it is worth mentioning the library at the university - it's just a storehouse for anyone who suffers from knowledge and answers to their questions.

Faculties

Today's student-to-teacher ratio is seven to one. Moreover, a good half of the lectures are given for groups of no more than 20 people, which greatly increases the chances of understanding and consolidating the material received by applicants.

The best university in the world has the following faculties:

business school;
humanitarian sciences;
design;
pedagogy;
management and management;
right;
healthcare;
dentistry;
religion;
applied Science;
cutting edge research.

And this is not a complete list. There are also academic specialties and departments for training specialists of various profiles. So at Harvard you can study any science, if there is a desire (and opportunities).

Graduates

Among the famous graduates of the best university in the world are the presidents of the United States (Roosevelt, Kennedy, Bush, Obama), world leaders of other countries, members of royal families (Prince Frederick of Denmark, Sheikh Sabah of Kuwait, Princess Owada of Japan, as well as businessmen Zuckerberg and Bill Gates .

University of Cambridge

Silver goes to one of the oldest educational institutions in Europe - the University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1209 and is located in East Anglia (about 90 km north of London). Nearby (50 km) is the major airport Stansted.

Almost 30 thousand students from all over the world study at the university. The educational institution is distinguished by its conservatism (however, like the whole of Foggy Albion), so any applicant who gets into the walls of Cambridge becomes part of the centuries-old English traditions. This applies to clothing, matriculation ceremonies, graduation ceremonies, etc.

University faculties

When entering a university, applicants always face a serious dilemma - which college to choose. The fact is that the existing Cambridge system is strikingly different from the usual American and European counterparts.

That is, here choosing a college, which is also a faculty, you determine for yourself a lifestyle and social circle. Whichever direction you take, it has its own buildings, gyms, playgrounds, and generally separate structures that have nothing to do with other specializations.

Colleges:

humanitarian sciences;
biology;
clinical medicine;
physics;
advanced research;
Social sciencies.

All of them are divided into 150 faculties and departments. It is worth noting that to study at the university you need to have not only an impeccable portfolio, but a tidy sum in a bank account.

Famous Alumni

Cambridge is famous for its alumni, including such major figures as Newton, Bacon, Rutherford and Oppenheimer. Also noteworthy are major literary figures: A. A. Milne, J. B. Prisley, Cl. Art. Lewis, L. Stern and our compatriot Vladimir Nabokov.

Cambridge has given our planet the largest number of Nobel Prize winners in many fields.

Oxford University (University of Oxford)

Bronze went to another oldest university in Europe - Oxford. The educational institution was founded in 1096 and is located in Central England (100 km northwest of London). Oxford can host up to 25,000 students from all over the world.

The university is also notable for the fact that the cult film about Harry Potter was filmed on the territory of Christ Church College, and the no less legendary Alice in Wonderland was written within its walls.

List of faculties

The main direction of the university is the humanities. But since the twentieth century, the exact sciences, law, music, medicine and art have been taught at Oxford with due success. The academic year here begins in October and consists of three semesters: autumn, winter and spring. Summer, respectively, is vacation time.

There are plenty of teachers at Oxford: one lecturer can read to audiences of five or six people, which allows full use of the tutoring system. That is, the student receives from his teacher not only basic, but also specialized knowledge in an expanded volume.

Colleges:

humanitarian sciences;
design;
pedagogy;
right;
healthcare;
applied Science;
cutting edge research.

Faculties, as in the case of Cambridge, are divided into colleges and function in a similar way to it.

Famous graduates

Among the famous graduates of the university, the following world figures can be distinguished: Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, Lewis Carroll and John Tolkien. We must not forget our compatriots - Anna Akhmatova, Joseph Brodsky, Ivan Turgenev and Korney Chukovsky.

Stanford University

Stanford is primarily famous for its research activities. From the first years of its existence (1891), the educational institution devoted itself to the search for truth and solving the most difficult problems, in parallel, of course, teaching applicants and attracting the best of them to its ranks. The complex is located in Silicon Valley, in California, North America.

In addition, Stanford has repeatedly found itself at the top of the rankings as the best medical university in the world, thanks to innovative discoveries in this field and a large number of exceptionally competent and experienced teachers.

Faculties of Stanford

Stanford was conceived not only as a purely educational institution, but also as a practical one. That is, when other universities focused on the cultural level, Stanford systematized the data of world employment exchanges month by month and provided citizens who were exclusively “useful” to society.

University specializations:

business and management;
the medicine;
earth science;
humanitarian sciences;
engineering;
right;
pedagogy;
society.

The specific direction of each faculty was necessarily calculated from the current needs of the labor market, so Stanford graduates were 100% likely to be provided with a job. In fact, they were already employed only by choosing a specialization and passing the entrance exams.

About graduates

We owe Stanford the invention of the modem and the TCP/IP protocols. Together with other alumni, Vintov Serf and Brand Townsend made our Internet possible today. Presidents and statesmen studied at the university: US President Herbert Hoover, Senators Kent Conrad, Dianne Feinstein and Supreme Court Justice Sandra O'Connor.

Businessmen also distinguished themselves by their quality education: Nike director Philip Knight, developer and father of the Pay Pal payment system Peter Thiel, two founders of the venerable Google search engine Lawrence Page and Sergey Brin, as well as Yahoo founder David Filo.