Netherlands stand-out performer of Times Higher Education ranking
The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium have emerged as strong performers in Europe in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2012-13, published last night.
The three European countries buck a clear trend of overall decline for Western universities, against rising investment in world class universities in the Asia Pacific region.
The Netherlands has 12 institutions in the world top 200 in the rankings – the most representatives of any country other than the UK and US. And this year every single Dutch university improved its position.
New Dutch number one
The Netherlands also has a new national number one. At the top, Leiden takes the number one spot for the Netherlands, moving from 79th to 64th, overtaking last year’s top Dutch institution, Utrecht which now takes 67th place.
Some of the most spectacular rises can be attributed to an improvement in the data submission from Dutch institutions, following consultation with our data suppliers, Thomson Reuters, but this should not detract from an outstanding performance.
CalTech remains global number one
California Institute of Technology holds on to the world’s number one spot, while Harvard is pushed into fourth place by Oxford and Stanford, which share second place
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings are the world’s most comprehensive and carefully calibrated global rankings, using 13 separate performance indicators to examine a university’s strengths against all of its core missions – teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. All data are collected, analysed and verified by global data provider Thomson Reuters.
This year’s rankings, which employ an identical methodology to the 2011-12 rankings for clear year-on-year comparisons, provide firm new evidence of a power shift from West to East in global higher education and research.
View the 2012-2013 Times Higher Education Rankings
Source: Times Higher Education Rankings/Thomson Reuters