The US dominance in the world of universities remains difficult for anyone to undermine. Both for British university historians and for the new Asian recruits. Let alone for theItaly which in any case tries to defend itself by placing 34 universities in the rankingsà and becoming the seventh most represented country in the world and the third in the European Union behind the United Kingdom (84) and Germany (47).
The data comes from the world ranking of the most famous universities in the world: the QS World University Ranking which takes into account the opinions of 94 teachers, academics and researchers, 44 managers and directors of human resources. The study takes into account 11.8 million scientific publications, 100 million citations, data on the distribution of 23 million students and about 2 million teachers and researchers.
UNIVERSITIES: HERE ARE THE TOP 10 IN THE WORLD
The ranking of the top 10 universities in the world is equally distributed between the United States and Europe with 5 universities made in the USA and 5 giants from the old continent. Keeping up the European honor is the United Kingdom, with four universities in the top 10, followed by Switzerland.
For the eighth consecutive year, a real record, in first place in the standings is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, the unattainable American university famous for its activism in the world of research. The podium is all stars and stripes: there is second place Stanford, in third place the university of Harvard, the oldest in the United States.
To momentarily break the American supremacy comes theOxford University, in fourth place, followed by CCalifornia Institute of Technology (Caltech), fifth. In sixth and seventh place we find respectively ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Switzerland) and the university of Cambridge. In eighth and ninth position two flagships of the United Kingdom: theUCL (University College London) and theImperial College London. Closes the Top 10 the university of Chicago.
ITALIAN UNIVERSITIES
Italy is far from the Top 10, but as mentioned, in addition to defending itself for the number of universities in the ranking, it also shows some excellence: "Italy has extraordinary university excellence and we hope that its ruling class will support them with adequate investments and forward-looking policies,” said Ben Sowter, director of the QS Intelligence Unit.
The first university that has achieved an important result is the Sant'Anna of Pisa, 156th in the general ranking, but among the top 10 universities in the world in terms of the impact of the research produced.
The best Italian university in the standings, for the fifth consecutive year, is the Politecnico di Milano, which rose from 156th to 149th place, improving in terms of reputation and credibility.
The Rector of PoliMi, Ferruccio Resta comments: “A step forward for the city of Milan and for the Lombardy region, but one we are not satisfied with. We are aware that the next results will depend on our ability to attract qualified teachers from abroad and on the country's willingness to implement adequate university policies”.
Among the universities taken into consideration, 5 have worsened their position: Ferrara, Brescia, the Sant'Anna high school in Pisa (from 167 to 177), the Normal of Pisa (from 175 to 204) and the Catholic. Counter movement for Florence, which gains 53 places climbing to the 448th position. Well also the university of Naples Frederick II, which goes up of 48 steps compared to the previous edition and ranking at 424th. Trent and Pisa enter the top 400 in the world, both ranking 389th, leaping forward 37 and 33 places respectively.
Bologna is also uphill, the Wisdom of Rome (203°), Padua, the Polytechnic of Turin, the Statale of Milan, Milan Bicocca, Turin, Genoa, Modena-Reggio Emilia. Instead, they make their debut in the QS World University ranking, placing themselves in the 801-1000 range: Parma, Udine, Salerno and the Polytechnic University of Bari.
