Shanghai Index: US dominance undiminished

University College London at 21st is the third placed European institution, whilst ETH Zurich at 23 is the highest ranked of mainland European universities.

When the Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University published its first league table in 2003 – to find out where Chinese universities stand in global terms and guide Chinese students in their choice of where to study abroad – it sent a shock wave around Europe’s higher education system. The low standing of many of the continent’s universities prompted calls for reform from national governments, the EU, industry and the institutions themselves.

Although there are some arguments about the overall applicability of the Shanghai metrics, with their focus on scientific research, the table is respected. It is also credited with sparking an examination of the university sector across Europe and being influential in reforms such as the amalgamation of universities in Finland, the Excellence Initiative in Germany and the root and branch modernisation instituted in France.

The Shanghai rankings are also reflected in EU initiatives to foster excellence in teaching and research, such as the ongoing Bologna reforms, the excellence ethos of the European Research Council, and moves to build a single European Research Area.

The European Commission also announced plans to set up a European benchmarking system in December 2008.

The seriousness of all this was reflected in a Bruegel think tank report: “Higher Aspiration: an agenda for reforming European universities,” published in June 2008. In it the authors conclude that the major investment in knowledge which Europe needs to make if it is to “thrive in a fast-transforming global context,” cannot be achieved, “without developing first-class higher education institutions.”

Reforms may take time to work through to league tables, but the rest of the world is not standing still either, and the latest Shanghai rankings remain sobering for Europe. It seems hard to believe, for example, that in a global research and development powerhouse such as Germany, the highest ranked university, Munich, comes in at 55.

For the record, the highest ranked Chinese University in 2009 is Nanjing, which is ranked between 201 – 302 (precise rankings are not given beyond the first 100 places).

Other European Universities to make the Top 100 are:

53 Utrecht
53 Edinburgh
54 University of Zurich
55 University of Munich
57 Technical University of Munich
61 Bristol
65 King’s College London
65 Oslo
70 Ecole Normale Superieure Paris
72 Helsinki
76 Uppsala
81 Sheffield
83 Nottingham
85 Basel
88 Stockholm
90 Goettingen
94 Birmingham
98 Bonn

But even as the need to reform and improve feeds through to action, European Universities that are in the Top 100 are losing ground. The Free University of Berlin ranked 95 in the first table in 2003, reached 83 in 2007 and fell out of the Top 100 in 2009. Imperial College was 17 in 2003 and 26 in 2009, Karolinska 39 in 2003 and 50 this year, Edinburgh 43 in 2003 and 53 now.

Improvers in Europe are King’s College London, going from 75 in 2003 to 65 now, ETH Zurich moving from 25 in 2003 to 23, and the one really impressive improvement, Manchester University leaping from 89 in 2003 to 41 in 2009, no doubt due to the merger of two of the city’s universities into a single institution in the meantime.

For those interested in more forensic detail of the standing of European universities in particular subjects the Shanghai rankings can be viewed at http://www.arwu.org.