China leads in the BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings 2016
Investment in research and development pays off, says World University Rankings reporter Ellie Bothwell
Developing nations that want to achieve the same level of higher education success as China have a tough journey ahead of them.
China’s research and development spending has increased by an average of 23 per cent a year over the past decade, according to Nature Index, with the goal of reaching 2.5 per cent of its gross domestic product by 2020, up from 1 per cent in 2000.
The People’s Republic’s 15-year science and technology plan, announced in 2006, includes the aim for China to become one of the world’s top five countries for the number of invention patents and most-cited scientific papers.
And earlier this year the country announced a new scheme, dubbed World Class 2.0, with the aim of establishing six of its universities in the leading group of global institutions by 2020, and for some of those to reach top 15 status by 2030. The initiative will include creating hubs for international collaboration with overseas universities and boosting the research base of China’s top nine universities.
So it is not surprising that China dominates this year’s Times Higher Education BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings.
The country claims half the top 10 places, which include Beijing neighbours Peking and Tsinghua universities in first and second place, and has 39 universities in the extended top 200 table, 27 of which sit within the first half.
Although THE’s rankings methodology remains largely unchanged, improvements made to the underlying data used to create the tables mean that it is impossible to make direct year-on-year comparisons of the results. Nonetheless, clear insights can be drawn.
While China still stands head and shoulders above the other large emerging BRICS economies, Brazil, Russia and India are all gaining in strength.
India is the only BRICS nation without an institution in the top 10, but it boasts the highest number of universities in the group apart from China and Taiwan. The Indian Institute of Science leads the country’s 16 institutions in 16th place.
Russia has 15 institutions in the top 200, including seven in the top 50, led by Lomonosov Moscow State University in third place.
It is followed by Brazil, which claims 14 universities, with its number one, the University of São Paulo, sitting in ninth place.
South Africa cannot claim to have the same strength in depth as the other developing nations, with six universities in total, but four of its institutions are in the top 50. The University of Cape Town is fourth, the University of the Witwatersrand sixth and Stellenbosch University 11th.
View the full universities list below.
BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings 2016
Rank
1 | Peking University | China |
2 | Tsinghua University | China |
3 | Lomonosov Moscow State University | Russia |
4 | University of Cape Town | South Africa |
5 | National Taiwan University | Taiwan |
6 | University of the Witwatersrand | South Africa |
7 | University of Science and Technology of China | China |
8 | Zhejiang University | China |
9 | University of São Paulo | Brazil |
10 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | China |
11 | Stellenbosch University | South Africa |
12 | National Chiao Tung University | Taiwan |
13 | Koc University | Turkey |
14 | Nanjing University | China |
15 | National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (Taiwan Tech) | Taiwan |
16 | Indian Institute of Science | India |
17 | Fudan University | China |
18 | Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University | Russia |
19 | National Tsing Hua University | Taiwan |
20 | Tomsk Polytechnic University | Russia |
21 | National Cheng Kung University | Taiwan |
22 | Sabanci University | Turkey |
23 | National Autonomous University of Mexico | Mexico |
=24 | State University of Campinas | Brazil |
=24 | Sun Yat-sen University | China |
=26 | Wuhan University | China |
=26 | National Research Nuclear University MEPhI | Russian |
28 | University of Cyprus | Cyprus |
29 | Indian Institute of Technology Bombay | India |
30 | Tianjin University | China |
=31 | Kazan Federal University | Russia |
=31 | University of Tartu | Estonia |
33 | University of Crete | Greece |
34 | Novosibirsk State University | Russia |
35 | China Medical University, Taiwan | Taiwan |
36 | Indian Institute of Technology Madras | India |
=37 | Indian Institute of Technology Delhi | India |
=37 | Saint Petersburg State University | Russia |
39 | VŠB - Technical University of Ostrava | Czech Republic |
40 | Harbin Institute of Technology | China |
41 | Bilkent University | Turkey |
42 | National Taiwan Normal University | Taiwan |
43 | Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) | Brazil |
44 | Charles University in Prague | Czech Republic |
45 | Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur | India |
46 | University of KwaZulu-Natal | South Africa |
47 | Federico Santa María Technical University | Chile |
48 | Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee | India |
49 | Huazhong University of Science and Technology | China |
=50 | East China University of Science and Technology | China |
=50 | Pontifical Catholic University of Chile | Chile |
=52 | Tongji University | China |
=52 | Xi’an Jiaotong University | China |
54 | Mahidol University | Thailand |
55 | China Agricultural University | China |
56 | Universiti Teknologi Malaysia | Malaysia |
=57 | Bauman Moscow State Technical University | Russia |
=57 | National Sun Yat-Sen University | Taiwan |
=57 | National Yang-Ming University | Taiwan |
60 | Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education | Mexico |
61 | Renmin University of China | China |
=62 | Istanbul University | Turkey |
=62 | National and Kapodistrian University of Athens | Greece |
=64 | Dalian University of Technology | China |
=64 | Middle East Technical University | Turkey |
=64 | National Central University | Taiwan |
=64 | Semmelweis University | Hungary |
=64 | South China University of Technology | China |
69 | Istanbul Technical University | Turkey |
70 | Soochow University | China |
=71 | Boğaziçi University | Turkey |
=71 | University of Warsaw | Poland |
=73 | Brno University of Technology | Czech Republic |
=73 | University of Ioannina | Greece |
=75 | University of Chile | Chile |
=75 | East China Normal University | China |
=77 | China University of Petroleum (Beijing) | China |
=77 | University of Pretoria | South Africa |
=77 | Xiamen University | China |
80 | Jadavpur University | India |
=81 | Sichuan University | China |
=81 | United Arab Emirates University | United Arab Emirates |
=83 | Athens University of Economics and Business | Greece |
=83 | Beijing Institute of Technology | China |
=83 | Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati | India |
=83 | Masaryk University | Czech Republic |
87 | Tomsk State University | Russia |
88 | University of Science and Technology Beijing | China |
89 | Federal University of Rio de Janeiro | Brazil |
=90 | King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi | Thailand |
=90 | Qatar University | Qatar |
92 | Palacký University in Olomouc | Czech Republic |
93 | Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology | Russia |
94 | Tallinn University of Technology | Estonia |
=95 | China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) | China |
=95 | Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur | India |
=97 | Babeş-Bolyai University | Romania |
=97 | National Technical University of Athens | Greece |
=99 | National University of Science and Technology (MISiS) | Russia |
=99 | Taipei Medical University | Taiwan |
Summary for Number of University in Top 100 by Country:
Source - Times Higher Education