2014 Academic Ranking of World Universities: Top 20 and UK placings

2014 ARWU University World Rankings: Top 20 and UK placings It feels like a strange time to publish a world ranking but ideal holiday reading for many. Anyway, as in previous years there is not a huge amount to get excited about as this is a league table where little changes. The full rankings have been published and …

2015 Complete University Guide League Table

It's spring and it's time for the first league table of the season. Once again it's the Complete University Guide which is first to publish this year. The top 25 is as follows: 1 (1) Cambridge 2 (2) Oxford 3 (3) London School of Economics 4 (6) St Andrews 5 (5) Durham 6 (4) Imperial …

Students behaving badly

Crimes and misdemeanours at university I was greatly taken by this list of fineable offences for 18th-century students at Harvard: Offense #19, "Cutting off the lead," seems to refer to the lead on the college building's roof. Lead was once used for roofing material (especially for more expensively-constructed buildings), and such buildings suffered from the …

Daft University Traditions

Some students (and universities) do the silliest things... Lots of universities have bizarre traditions which their students sustain year after year or in some cases disappear into oblivion. My eye was recently caught by a collection of "Princetonia" including this rather odd event called Poler's Recess: One of the more peculiar Princeton traditions was an …

2013 Academic Ranking of World Universities: Top 20 and UK placings

2013 ARWU University World Rankings: Top 20 and UK placings A level results day is an interesting time to publish a world ranking but who are we to criticise. Anyway, don't get too excited as it is unlikely the bookies will be losing their shirts on this one. Here is the top 20 in full. …

2014 Complete University Guide League Table

It's spring and it's time for the first league table of the season. The Complete University Guide and league table for 2014 is now out. The details can be found on the Guide website together with lots of other analysis (including by subject, region and mission group)  and information on careers, fees etc. The main …

The Imperfect University: Graduation – a bit London 2012?

Graduations: A bit like the Olympics but then some Graduation is one of the most significant events in the university calendar. It is a slightly bizarre and rather ritualistic event. Everyone (well, nearly everyone) dresses up, in gowns and/or posh frocks or newly acquired suits. I have attended two of my own and over 150 …

2012 Shanghai Jiao Tong World Rankings: Top 20 and UK placings

2012 Shanghai Jiao Tong World Rankings: Top 20 and UK placings Keep calm. Top 20 follows: 1 Harvard University 2 Stanford University 3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 4 University of California, Berkeley 5 University of Cambridge 6 California Institute of Technology 7 Princeton University 8 Columbia University 9 University of Chicago 10 University of …

A new world ranking of universities

What we've all been waiting for... Yes, it's another new world ranking. This time from the previously  unheard of Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) from Saudi Arabia. The website offers little information about the organisation but we do know that the US has the lion's share of the top 100 places: The distribution of …

QS World subject ranking – UK universities

New QS world rankings by subject The Guardian has a summary of UK universities' performance in the latest QS subject rankings and it looks like Oxford comes out top Institution name Highest rank Subject University of Oxford 1 Geography History Philosophy University of Cambridge 1 English Language and Literature London Business School 3 Accountancy and …

Student Olympians

A different kind of league table Universities Week this year had a distinct Olympics focus: 30 April 2012: To mark the start of Universities Week 2012 (30 April – 7 May), a new report launched today reveals the statistics behind Team GB for the last twenty years. Detailed analysis of UK Olympic athletes shows that …

2013 Complete University Guide League Table

Yes, it's the first league table of the season The Complete University Guide and league table is now out. The details can be found on the Guide websitetogether with lots of other analysis (including by subject, region and mission group)  and information on careers, fees etc. The main table uses nine indicators: Student Satisfaction, Research …

A Key University Ranking

It's the University Challenge top 10 University Ranking Watch has published a distinctive table: the universities which have won the most University Challenge series. Leaving aside the detail that Oxford and Cambridge enjoy the special privilege of multiple entries, via the Colleges, it's an interesting list: 1. Oxford      39 points 2. Cambridge      21 3. Manchester      …

Student regulations. In Oxford and Uzbekistan

Guess which is from the 16th Century Students have always behaved badly. Not all of them and not all of the time but universities have often felt the need to seek to constrain the worst excesses. In 1584 at Oxford University, statutes were approved to prevent disorder among the student body. These regulations also contain …

Not one of the most cited league tables

But a diverting ranking nevertheless... I first picked up on this one over four years ago in a rather dismissive post. It's an exciting league table which aims to reflect the contributions of universities to educating the world's top chief executives. Produced by the Ecole des Mines de Paris, or MINES ParisTech as they seem …