Greece Outside In: World's top 100 universities under 50: ranked by Times Higher Education

Thursday, June 20, 2013

World's top 100 universities under 50: ranked by Times Higher Education

South Korea's Pohang University of Science and Technology has retained its top spot as the best university under the age of 50. Find out which universities have made the list
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South Korea's Pohang University of Science and Technology has, once again, topped a list of the best universities under the age of 50.

The second annual Times Higher Education 100 under 50 rankings aim to show a "new breed of global universities - those that have managed to join the world's best in a matter of decades rather than centuries."

Swiss university, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne follows in second place and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology takes third place.

Eight nations are represented in the top 10 this year, up from only six in 2012. Singapore and the Netherlands join South Korea, Switzerland, Hong Kong, the US, France and the UK, making it more diverse than the traditional world top 100 which is usually dominated by US and UK institutions.

In the world's top 100 universities 2013 ranking by the Times Higher Education, the US boasted 40 institutions. In comparison, the US has only eight representatives in the 100 under 50 list, putting the usually dominant nation into third place behind the UK and Australia.

Despite the UK's strong representation in the top 100, there is only one UK institution in the top ten, down from a tally of three in 2012. The University of York is the highest placed UK representative on the list, up one place to seventh position.

There are 18 UK institutions in total on the list. The University of Warwick (13th), Lancaster (14th) and the University of East Anglia (16th) appear in the top 20.

Australia performs well also, with 13 universities in the list. The highest ranking Australian institution is the Queensland University of technology at joint 26th place with the Canadian Simon Fraser university.

Once again, Asia performs well in the under-50 rankings. South Korea takes two of the top five places and five institutions from Taiwan make an appearance. Hong Kong also gets a special mention in the latest release due to the fact that the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (in at fourth place) was only founded in 1991.

So what else do the rankings show us? Here are some key facts:

• 28 different countries are represented in the top 100 – compared to just 20in the top 100 of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings
• Eight countries are represented int the top 10: south Korea, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Singapore, the US, France and the UK
• The youngest institution in the list is Austria's Medical University of Vienna which was founded in 2004
• Spain, Portugal, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Italy and Greece all, which don't appear at all on the top 200 of the Times Higher Education world university rankings 2013, are represented in the top 100 under 50

Thirteen indicators across five areas - research, teaching, knowledge transfer and international activity - were taken into account. The full methodology can be found here.

And if you're wondering why your university doesn't appear on the list, according to Times Higher Education "the 100 Under 50 is designed to be dynamic and forward-looking, so only universities founded in 1963 or later are listed."

Download the spreadsheet to see the individual scores by institution. The spreadsheet also has details of last year's ranking and their overall ranking in the world top 100.