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[forest1227]

[The English edition was first posted in Philosophy Chart Forum]

Why the Millennium Ranking?

Global university ranking has become a common phenomenon, but the results have been mixed at the best.
The THES – QS ranking depends on subjective methods, which in turn is a reflection of personal impressions of the interested parties. The top four have been typically Harvard, Yale, Oxford and Cambridge. Even though I did not expect such a rating to be balanced and objective, it is still astonishing to see that 19 out of the top 20 universities are in the English-speaking countries, which inevitably undermines its credibility.
The ENS professional ranking, on the other hand, is based on the income and power of the graduates. This pragmatic approach has been hampered by the impact of the differential cost of living that is rather difficult to calibrate to say the least. The outcome of this ranking is also highly biased, as indicated by the fact that four out of the top ten are Japanese universities, an indicator of the high cost of living in Japan rather than a better education.
The so-called academic ranking by Shanghai Jiaotong University is allegedly obtained by calculating the papers on Nature, Science and those cited by SCI、SSCI、AHCI, etc. This kind of indiscriminate addition of numbers fails to take into account of the differential significance of research projects in different fields, and strongly favor those universities producing a large amount of low quality papers. Perhaps the project leaders thought that this undesirable influence could be neutralized by including papers on big name journals such as Nature and Science. In reality, it merely produces new distortions as the two journals are devoted exclusively to natural science especially life science, which is only a small part of the university research and education. Worst of all, it has been found that the results is irreproducible by independent parties. Obviously, the credibility of this ranking is in doubt.
Regardless, all the existing rankings are current rankings, which could not reflect the historical contribution of relevant schools and the overall trend of evolution of the rankings. Hence, it leaves much to be desired. This is particularly obvious if we consider the fact that the modern university system has a history of approximately one thousand years, during which time a modern industrial civilization sprung up. We gained tremendous progress, if I may, in our understanding of the universe, the structure of matters, the life on earth, as well as the psychological and social phenomena, and made numerous attempts to renew our theory of ethics, belief, and philosophy. It was within the time frame that things took place and evolved; we may not be able to gain a complete understanding of it without considering the time factor as it played and still plays a critical role in determining our lifestyle and our way of thinking.
For this purpose, a new method of evaluating the scholars has been devised, which would receive further treatment later, to evaluate historical performance of various institutes. The result speaks for itself on the validity of this approach.

Methods and Conclusion

First of all, a number of outstanding scholars were selected based on their achievements. No quota was given to any fields of study. As matter of fact, all the fields are merely divided into five areas: physical sciences, engineering, biology, medicine, and arts. A high standard was adopted to minimize the differential academic attainment by different scholars. Politicians with important influence on the history are also included. Altogether, approximately 1400 names were selected. Each selected person gives a positive score to relevant colleges and universities. The sum becomes the score of the schools, which forms the basis of the ranking. Only the existing universities are ranked. A university that have been functioning as a single entity but divided recently is treated as a single university. All the colleges and affiliated institutes are considred part of a university.

I. Academic Ranking

A. Millennium Cumulative Ranking

The following reflects the cumulative scores from the 11th until the 20th century.

1  Université de Paris 
2  University of Cambridge 
3  Harvard University 
4  Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin 
5  Georg-August-Universität Göttingen 
6  University of Oxford 
7  University of Chicago 
8  Columbia University 
9  Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
10  Princeton University
11  Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова
12  University of California, Berkeley 
13  University of London 
14  École Polytechnique 
14  Cornell University
16  Leland Stanford Junior University 
17  Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет
18  California Institute of Technology 
19  École normale supérieure 
20  Yale University 
21  Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München 
21  Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich 
23  Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna 
24  Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg 
25  Università degli Studi di Padova
25  Universität Leipzig 
27  Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn 
28  Johns Hopkins University 
29  Universiteit Leiden 
30  Université de Strasbourg 
31  Universität Wien 
32  University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
33  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 
34  University of Wisconsin-Madison
35  Московский Физико-Технический институт 
36  Københavns Universitet 
36  New York University 
36  University of California, Los Angeles 
39  University of Minnesota 
39  Universität Hamburg 
41  Российский государственный университет имени Иммануэла Канта 
41  University of Edinburgh 
41  東京大学  Tokyo Univ.
44  Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” 
44  University of Pennsylvania
44  University of California, San Diego 
47  Università degli Studi di Pavia 
47  Philipps-Universität Marburg 
47  Technische Universität München 
50  Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg 
50  University of Calcutta (কলকাতা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়) 
52  Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
52  Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
52  Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena 
52  Technische Universität Berlin 
52  Uniwersytet Warszawski 
52  Victoria University of Manchester
58  Universität Basel 
58  Universität Zürich 
58  École nationale des ponts et chaussées 
58  École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris 
58  University of Toronto 
58  City College of New York (City University of New York) 
58  University of Washington 
58  Rockefeller University 
66  Uniwersytet Wrocławski 
66  京都大学  Kyoto Univ.
66  Carnegie Mellon University 
69  Universidade de Coimbra 
69  Università di Pisa 
69  Universiteit Utrecht 
69  Московский государственный технический университет им. Н. Э. Бауманаа 
69  Duke University 
69  Санкт-Петербургский Государственный Политехнический Университет 
75  Univerzity Karlovy v Praze 
75  University of St Andrews
75  Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg 
75  McGill University
79  University of Glasgow 
79  Uppsala universitet 
79  Université de Genève 
79  Università degli Studi di Torino 
79  Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz 
79  Friedrich-Alexander-University, Erlangen-Nuremberg 
79  Imperial College, London 
79  Washington University in St. Louis 
79  University of Texas at Austin 
88  Uniwersytet Jagielloński w Krakowski 
88  Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel 
88  Université de Lyon 
88  Case Western Reserve University 
88  Universiteit van Amsterdam 
93  Università degli Studi di Ferrara 
93  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 
93  Universität Karlsruhe 
93  University of Virginia 
93  École centrale Paris 
93  University of Colorado 
93  Vanderbilt University 
93  University of Bristol 
101  Universidad de Salamanca 
101  Université de Montpellier 
101  Universität Rostock 
101  University of Dublin 
101  Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem 
101  Львівський національний університет імені Івана Франка 
101  Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem 
101  Казанский государственный университет 
101  Харківський національний університет імені Каразіна 
101  Amherst College 
101  Indiana University 
101  Universidade de São Paulo 
101  University of Sheffield 
101  Université Libre de Bruxelles 
101  Purdue University 
101  Illinois Institute of Technology 
101  Уральский государственный университет 
101  Московский авиационный институт
119  Université d'Orléans
119  Università degli Studi di Firenze 
119  University of Groningen 
119  Tartu Ülikool 
119  Karolinska institutet 
119  Universiteit Gent 
119  George Washington University 
119  University of California, San Francisco 
119  Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen 
119  Ohio State University 
119  Stockholms universitet 
119  University of Liverpool 
119  École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris 
119  Націона́льний техні́чний університе́т Украї́ни «Ки́ївський політехні́чний інститу́т» 
119  北京大学  Peking Univ.
119  University of British Columbia 
119  Australian National University 
119  Новосибирский Государственный Университет 
137  Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II 
137  Université de Toulouse 
137  Université catholique de Louvain 
137  Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz 
137  Universidad Complutense de Madrid 
137  University of Pittsburgh 
137  Université de Bordeaux 
137  Санкт-Петербургский Технологический Институт 
137  University of Birmingham 
137  University of Cape Town 
137  University of Leeds 
137  Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка 
137  University of Florida 
137  University of Melbourne 
137  University of Maryland, College Park 
137  Università degli Studi di Milano 
137  Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main 
137  Московский Инженерно-Физический Институт 
137  State University of New York at Stony Brook 
156  Università degli Studi di Perugia 
156  Universitat de Barcelona 
156  Université de Poitiers 
156  Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald 
156  Nancy-Université 
156  Lund Universitet 
156  Brown University 
156  Dartmouth College 
156  Universitetet i Oslo 
156  Universidad de Buenos Aires 
156  University of Sydney 
156  Pennsylvania State University 
156  University of Mumbai (मुंबई विद्यापीठ) 
156  大阪大学  Osaka Univ.
156  University of the Punjab (جامعه پنجاب) 
156  The University of Auckland 
156  清华大学  Tsinghua Univ.
156  University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas 
156  Freie Universität Berlin 
There are 175 institutions in total.
   
B. Centennial Ranking
All names are modern to avoid any confusion.

11th -12th Centuries
1  Univ. Paris 
2  Alma Mater Studiorum Univ. Bologna 
3  Univ. Oxford 

13th -14th Centuries
1  Univ. Paris 
2  Alma Mater Studiorum Univ. Bologna 
3  Univ. Oxford 
4  Univ. Perugia 

15th Century
1  Alma Mater Studiorum Univ. Bologna 
2  Univ. Paris 
2  Univ. Padova 
2  Univ. Ferrara 
5  Univ. Oxford 
5  Univ. Cambridge 

16th Century
1  Univ. Padova 
2  Univ. Paris 
3  Alma Mater Studiorum Univ. Bologna 
3  Univ. Oxford 
3  Univ. Cambridge 
3  Univ. Pisa 
7  Univ. Leiden 
8  Univ. Coimbra 
8  Univ. catholique Louvain 
10  Univ. Salamanca 
10  Univ. Poitiers
10  Univ. Basel

17th Century
1  Univ. Oxford 
2  Univ. Cambridge 
3  Univ. Paris 
4  Alma Mater Studiorum Univ. Bologna 
4  Univ. Padova
4  Univ. Basel 
4  Univ. Leiden 
8  Københavns Univ.   

18th Century
1  École Polytechnique 
2  Univ. Paris 
3  Georg-August-Univ. Göttingen 
4  Humboldt-Univ. Berlin 
5  École natl. des ponts et chaussées 
6  Univ. Cambridge 
6  Friedrich-Schiller-Univ. Jena 
8  Санкт-Петербургский гос. унив. 
9  Российский гос. унив. Иммануэла Канта
9  Univ. Edinburgh 
11  Univ. Oxford 
11  Univ. Pavia 
11  Univ. Leipzig 
11  Univ. Torino 
11  Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Univ. Bonn
There are 15 institutions in total.

19th Century
1  Humboldt-Univ. Berlin 
2  Georg-August-Univ. Göttingen 
3  Univ. Paris 
4  Univ. Cambridge 
5  Санкт-Петербургский гос. унив. 
5  Univ. London 
7  Ludwig-Maximilian-Univ. München 
8  Harvard Univ. 
9  Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Univ. Bonn 
10  Ruprecht-Karls-Univ. Heidelberg 
10  Eidgenössische Tech. Hoch. Zürich
12  Univ. Chicago 
13  Univ. Oxford 
13  Univ. Leipzig 
13  École Polytechnique 
16  Univ. Wien 
16  Московский гос. унив. М. В. Ломоносова 
18  Columbia Univ.
19  Univ. Strasbourg 
20  École norm. sup. 
21  Cornell Univ. 
21  Johns Hopkins Univ. 
23  Univ. Zürich 
23  Philipps-Univ. Marburg
23  Uniw. Wrocławski 
26  Albert-Ludwigs-Univ. Freiburg 
26  Princeton Univ.     
26  École natl. sup.mines Paris 
26  Univ. Calcutta 
30  Российский государственный университет имени Иммануэла Канта 
30  Univ. Leiden 
30  Univ. California, Berkeley
There are 31 institutions in total.

20th Century 
1   Harvard Univ.
2   Massachusetts Inst. Tech.
3   Univ. Cambridge
4   Columbia Univ.
5   Univ. Chicago
6   Princeton Univ.
7   Univ. California, Berkeley
8   Leland Stanford Jr. Univ.
9   California Inst. Tech.
10   Московский гос. унив. М. В. Ломоносова
11   Univ. Paris 
12   Cornell Univ.
13   Yale Univ.
14   Univ. Oxford
15   École norm. sup.
15   Univ. London
17   Univ. Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
18   Univ. Michigan, Ann Arbor
19   Georg-August-Univ. Göttingen
19   Eidgenössische Tech. Hoch. Zürich
19   Univ. California, Los Angeles
22   Univ. Wisconsin-Madison
22   Johns Hopkins Univ.
24   Univ. Minnesota
24   Univ. California, San Diego
26   Univ. Pennsylvania
26   New York Univ.
26   Московский Физико-Техн. инст.
29   東京大学 Tokyo University
30   Univ. Washington
31   Санкт-Петербургский гос. унив.
31   Tech. Univ. München
33   Univ. Toronto
33   City Col. of New York (City Univ. New York)
33   Carnegie Mellon Univ.
36   Ludwig-Maximilian-Univ. München
36   Humboldt-Univ. Berlin
36   京都大学 Kyoto University
36   Univ. Hamburg
40   Rockefeller Univ.
41   Univ. Leiden
41   Univ. Strasbourg             
41   Duke Univ.
44   Univ. Roma “La Sapienza”
44   Københavns Univ.
44   École Polytechnique
44   Uniw. Warszawski
44   Case Western Reserve Univ.
44   Univ. Colorado
44   Univ. Texas at Austin
44   Санкт-Петербургский гос. ПолиТехн. унив.
52   Rutgers, The State Univ. New Jersey
52   Univ.eSão Paulo
52   McGill Univ.
52   Vanderbilt Univ.
52   Univ. Bristol
52   Purdue Univ.
52   Illinois Inst. Tech.
59   Ruprecht-Karls-Univ. Heidelberg
59   Tech. Univ. Berlin
59   Univ. Sheffield
59   Imperial Col., London
59   Victoria Univ. Manchester
59   Washington Univ. in St. Louis
59   Univ. California, San Francisco
59   Ohio State Univ.
59   Univ. Amsterdam
59   Univ. British Columbia
59   Новосибирский гос. унив.
70   Univ. Wien
70   Univ. Leipzig
70   Eberhard Karls Univ. Tübingen
70   Univ. Edinburgh
70   Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem
70   Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Univ. Bonn
70   George Washington Univ.
70   Univ. Virginia
70   Univ. LibreBruxelles
70   Univ. Florida
70   Univ. Calcutta
70   Univ. Maryland, Col. Park
70   Уральский гос. унив.
70   Московский авиационный инст.
70   Московский Инженерно-Физический инст.
70   Australian natl. Univ.
70  State Univ. New York Stony Brook 
87  Univ. St Andrews 
87  Albert-Ludwigs-Univ. Freiburg 
87  Uppsala Univ. 
87  Univ. Genève     
87   Brown Univ.
87   Karolinska inst.
87   Amherst Col.
87   Indiana Univ.
87   Univ. Cape Town
87   Московский гос. Техн. унив. им. Н. Э. Бауманаа
87   Univ. Melbourne
87   Pennsylvania State Univ.
87   Stockholms Univ.
87   Univ. Liverpool
87   The Univ. Auckland
87   Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Univ. Frankfurt am Main
87   Univ. Texas Southwestern Med. Ctr. Dallas
There are 103 institutions in total.
   
The University of Paris leads the others by a comfortable margin. This is primarily a result of its long history. It is known that Oxford essentially resulted from the split of Paris, and Cambridge, from Oxford. Harvard was derived from Cambridge since Mr. J. Harvard was an alumnus of Cambridge. In this sense, the University of Paris is the starting point of the modern university. The best graduates of Oxford and Cambridge went to Paris to complete their study. Pope Gregory IX praised the university as “the mother of the sciences” and “city of letters”. Its dominance was not challenged until the Italian Renaissance, and it remained among the top three before the rise of the American universities in the 20th century.
It is interesting to note that the top two universities often belong to the same country staring from the 17th century, and could be associated with historical events. When Oxford and Cambridge toped the academic world, there was a revolution on Britain. When École Polytechnique and Paris ranked on the top, it was the time of French Revolution. The European revolution of 1848 swept through Germany, when Berlin and Göttingen bested the world. In the 20th century, Harvard and MIT were sitting on the crown, presumably as the result of the rise of the new superpower. What we have described here is a historical phenomenon, and not of minor significance. Although it is hard to prove the cause-and-effect relation, it is unlikely that the observation was merely a coincidence. It is conceivable that the European revolutions apparently had a liberating effect on academic research in that country concerned. It has little to do with the economic development since the Spanish and the Dutch empires did not achieve much in this aspect, nether did the British Empire of the 19th century when Cambridge merely grasped the 4th place.
In contrast, the independence movement in the third world has little positive impact on the academic research. As matter of fact, it often has a negative impact. For example, the University of Calcutta was the best university outside Europe and USA in the 19th century, but it started to decline after the Indian Independence. Similar situation happened to the other South Asian universities. Also the Chinese universities in the mainland declined after Mao’s Revolution. Hence, the academic performance of the universities in a given country could serve as a useful indicator for the progressiveness of the social change.

[forest1227]

II. Nationalities of the Selected Scholars

These scholars come from 52 countries (by birth) listed below.

No.  Counrty  %
1  USA         16.99
2  Germany     13.99
3  France       13.20
4  Russia/CCCP  11.56
5  UK          10.78
6  Italy          6.14
7  Netherlands    2.71
8  India         2.14
9  Japan         2.00
10  Austria       1.93
11  Switzerland   1.86
12  China        1.79
13  Poland       1.43
14  Canada       1.29
15  Hungary      1.29
16  Sweden       1.14
17  Spain        0.93
17  Denmark      0.93
19  Belgium      0.86
20  Australia     0.71
21  Iran          0.64
22  Portugal      0.57
23  Czech         0.50
23  Ireland       0.50
25  Brazil        0.43
25  Norway      0.43
27  Argentina    0.29
27  Finland       0.29
27  South Africa   0.29
30  New Zealand  0.21
30  Pakistan      0.21
The above are the top 31 countries.

The distributions of the scholars from the top-six ranking countries and the total number are shown in the figure. The total curve display a clear downward trend in the 14th century, obviously related to the “Black-Death”. It was followed by a minor peak in Italy corresponding to the Renaissance. Afterwards, there was a major peak in France, corresponding to the French Revolution, followed by a sharp peak in Germany corresponding to the European Revolution and a peak in Russia corresponding to the Russian Revolutions. The rise of the US was characterised by a much greater scale and was probably a different kind of matter, possibly a result of the emergence of the superpower in the 20th century.

Taken together, the evolution of the academic ranking of the nations and of the universities suggest that the western history in the last one thousand years could be divided into four periods: (1) the High Middle Age centred in Paris; (2) the Renaissance centred in Italy; (3) the European Revolutions spreading from the Britains through France and Germany and eventually ended in Russia; (4) overlapping the Russian Revolutions was the rise of the superpower in North America as the beginning of capitalist globalisation. Russia was never a superpower judging either from its academic performance or from its GDP.

III. Ranking by Research Areas

A. Physical sciences:
1. Paris
2. Cambridge
3. Göttingen
4. Princeton
5. Chicago
6. Berlin
7. Harvard
8. Moscow
9. ÉP Paris
10. MIT
11. Berkeley
12. ETH Zürich
13. Columbia
13. ÉNS Paris 
13. Cal. Tech.

B. Engineering
1. MIT
2. Stanford
3. Moscow State Tech. Univ.
4. Harvard
5. ETH Zürich
5. Moscow Phys.-Tech. Inst.
7. St. Petersburg State Tech. Univ.
7. Moscow Aviation Inst.
9. Michigan
9. Cal. Tech.

C. Biology
1. Cambridge
2. Stanford
3. Oxford
3. Berkeley
3. Cal. Tech.
6. Harvard
6. London
6. MIT
6. Illinois
11. Columbia
11. Rockefeller

D. Medicine
1. Harvard
1. Cambridge
3. London
4. Columbia
4. Johns Hopkins
6. Paris
7. Berlin
8. Padova
8. Cornell
8. Washington (Seattle)
8. Rockefeller
12. Bologna
12. Washington (St. Louis)
12. UCSF

E. Arts
1. Paris
2. Oxford
3. Berlin
4. London
5. Cambridge
5. Columbia
7. Harvard
8. Chicago
9. Bologna
10. Yale
11. Wien
12. Göttingen

IV. Ranking of the Academic Cities

This is based on the universities located in the metropolitan area:

1 Paris
2 Boston
3 New York
4 Berlin
5 Москва
6 Chicago
7 Los Angeles
8 London
9 San Fracisco
10 Санкт-Петербу́рг
11 München    
12 Zürich

Discussion

Ranking of higher education institutions has always been a controversial affair, not least because the subject matter is often a matter of opinion depending on the philosophy of science and education. For some people, education is primarily a mean of investment, and comparison of the graduate’s income has been going on for many years in the US. The ENS ranking brought this matter to everyone’s attention as it is consistently dominated by the Japanese universities, presumably due to the high living cost and thus higher nominal income in Japan, which has nothing to do with the real income or the quality of the education system.
As far as the academic performance is concerned, it is difficult, to say the least, to formulate a universally accepted criteria and a method of quantification, which could explain why so many rankings have been based on subjective scoring. If subjective method is still somewhat meaningful within a country, it breaks down rapidly once applied in an international setting as most people would like to rank those in their country on the top, followed by those in country of the same language. As a result, international ranking of this nature often becomes mixed with unhealthy doses of nationalism, as the THES-QS results have demonstrated. Such results are merely generated to please the reader and its value rests primarily on political propaganda and reinforcement of cultural identity.
SJU made an attempt in quantifying the research output in an objective manner, but the outcome has been problematic, as already mentioned in the beginning of this article. In essence, SCI and the like were not designed to be used for this purpose. There is no way you could compare the pea paper of Mendel that laid the foundation of modern genetics with papers on those run-of-the-mill journals. Some scientists could publish as many as a thousand papers and yet achieve mo more than the single paper of Mendel. Hence, we are facing the possibility of huge distortion if we rely on paper counting to measure academic performance. Here, we are not even considering some papers involving unethical misconducts, which is not so rare in certain parts of the world.
To overcome this problem, counting the outstanding scholars is a viable alternative, as it reduces the workload and allows a more careful consideration of the achievement on individual basis regarding originality, difficulty, influence, and pragmatic values. Any error that is bound to happen will only be in the scale of one instead of several hundred folds as it happens in counting papers. In addition, errors in scholar selection are generally random and could cancel out in larger samples whereas errors in paper counting are often systematic in nature and tend to accumulate in larger samples. The judgments by experts in history of science and in individual fields as shown by the honours and awards are given careful consideration, although this does not prevent necessary correction of the past mistakes in judgment. For example, Nobel prize were never given to Lise Meitner, Дми́трий Менделе́ев, Rosalind Franklin, Лев Толсто́й, Henrik Ibsen and Émile Zola, just to name a few. The ranking here is not award-based, but it takes such element into consideration to maximize the objectivity of the process and the result.
Certain reader has raised the question about relationship between the proof of the education and the achievement of the scholars. This is a delicate issue, and it is considered a job of the historians and education researchers. It is obviously beyond the scale of this study.
Overall speaking, the most significant contribution of this study is not about the method of scoring but the fact that it takes the entire history into account. By observing the dynamic change of the individual schools and the entire nation over time, it has been possible to reveal certain general trends of the academic performance of the schools and nations in relation to critical historical development. This achievement by itself demonstrates the validity of the methodology and provides an important point of departure for anyone interested in such investigations.

[forest1227]

III. Ranking by Research Areas
this section is modified by moving computer sicence into engineering.

   Physical Sciences
1   巴黎大学
2   剑桥大学
3   格奥格-奥古斯特-格丁根大学
4   芝加哥大学
5   普林斯顿大学
6   柏林洪堡大学
7   哈佛大学
8   М.В.罗蒙诺索夫莫斯科国立大学
9   巴黎综合理工学院
10   麻省理工学院
11   苏黎世联邦高等工业学院
11   伯克利加利福尼亚大学
13   巴黎高等师范学校
14   圣彼得堡国立大学
14   哥伦比亚大学
   
   Engineering
1   麻省理工学院
2   小利兰·斯坦福大学
3   哈佛大学
4   鲍曼莫斯科国立技术大学
4   加州理工学院
6   苏黎世联邦高等工业学院
7   剑桥大学
7   哥伦比亚大学
7   莫斯科物理技术学院
10   密歇根大学
10   伯克利加利福尼亚大学
10   圣彼得堡国立技术大学
10   莫斯科航空学院

[forest1227]

III. Ranking by Research Areas

A.   Physical Sciences
1   Paris
2   Cambridge
3   Göttingen
4   Chicago
5   Princeton
6   Berlin
7   Harvard
8   Mosccow
9   EP Paris
10   MIT
11   ETH Zurich
11   UC Berkeley
13   ENS Paris
14   Columbia
   
B.   Engineering
1   MIT
2   Stanford
3   Harvard
4   Moscow Tech. U.
4   Cal. Tech.
6   ETH Zurich
7   Cambridge
7   Columbia
7   Moscow Phys.-Tech. Inst.
10   Michigan
10   UC Berkeley
10   St. Pertersburg Tech. U.
10   Moscow Aviation Inst.
   
C.   Biology
1   Cambridge
2   Standford
3   Oxford
3   Berkeley
3   Cal. Tech.
6   Harvard
6   London
6   MIT
6   Wisconsin
6   Illinois
11   Columbia
11   Rockefeller
   
D.   Medicine
1   Cambridge
1   Harvard
3   Columbia
3   London
5   Johns Hopkins
6   Paris
6   Berlin
8   Padova
8   Cornell
8   U. Washington
8   Rockefeller
12   Bologna
12   Washington U. St. Louis
12   UCSF
   
E.   Arts
1   Paris
2   Oxford
3   Berlin
4   London
6   Columbia
7   Harvard
8   Bologna
10   Yale
10   Göttingen
12   Wien

[daniel_von_flanagan]

Once you get past the top 10-15, this becomes increasingly ludicrous.

IIT above Ohio State, Groningen, and UBC?  Paris above Harvard, Cambridge, Berkeley, and MIT in Physical Science? And where's Scuola Normale?

Seriously, as idiotic as the exercise of putting schools in a linear order is to begin with, this one is absolutely the worst I've seen yet. - DvF

[onestep]

Seriously, as idiotic as the exercise of putting schools in a linear order is to begin with, this one is absolutely the worst I've seen yet. - DvF

Agreed.  Further, despite all the hub-bub about avoiding bias, the rankings omit any consideration of social sciences, humanities, and other important areas.

[systeme_d_]

What was the point of posting this idiocy?

[forest1227]

Once you get past the top 10-15, this becomes increasingly ludicrous.

IIT above Ohio State, Groningen, and UBC?  Paris above Harvard, Cambridge, Berkeley, and MIT in Physical Science? And where's Scuola Normale?

Seriously, as idiotic as the exercise of putting schools in a linear order is to begin with, this one is absolutely the worst I've seen yet. - DvF

You are too used to the US New ranking of all American schools. It certainly wil come to be a shock to you, or I will not bother to do it or post it -- what is the point to repeat something already said a thousand times over?

The main cause of the difference is that it is not a current raking but a historical one. Do you know anything about the history of scietific development, which mostly happen in Europe? Try to do some home work.

[forest1227]

Seriously, as idiotic as the exercise of putting schools in a linear order is to begin with, this one is absolutely the worst I've seen yet. - DvF

Agreed.  Further, despite all the hub-bub about avoiding bias, the rankings omit any consideration of social sciences, humanities, and other important areas.

Nothign was omitted, they are all grouped in the "Arts". Anything wrong about it? Some negative reactions are anticipated as such an international ranking are bond to offend many nationalists.

[forest1227]

International ranking will please people of any nationalities. That is why few bother. In the English speaking world, the only widely know ranking of such type is the THES ranking, which is basically a impressionistic ranking of the Anglo-American universities. It merely serve the purpose of reinforcing the nationalistic feeling, which is already very strong in these countries, especially among the conservatives. This article will serve as an antidote. It will be too bitter for some to swallow, I know. But that is life, unless you could supress everyone's voice except the Anglo-American view -- that is exactly how you got into the current financial meltdown. Time to wake up, guys & girls!

[daniel_von_flanagan]

Once you get past the top 10-15, this becomes increasingly ludicrous.

IIT above Ohio State, Groningen, and UBC?  Paris above Harvard, Cambridge, Berkeley, and MIT in Physical Science? And where's Scuola Normale?

Seriously, as idiotic as the exercise of putting schools in a linear order is to begin with, this one is absolutely the worst I've seen yet. - DvF

You are too used to the US New ranking of all American schools. It certainly wil come to be a shock to you, or I will not bother to do it or post it -- what is the point to repeat something already said a thousand times over?

The main cause of the difference is that it is not a current raking but a historical one. Do you know anything about the history of scietific development, which mostly happen in Europe? Try to do some home work.

OK, first of all: "News", "will", "ranking", "scientific", "happened", "homework"

Second: Scuola Normale, historically and currently one of the best schools in the world, is never listed in the "US New raking", but mysteriously absent from your supposedly Europe-friendly listing.

Third: I am well aware of the French contribution to the sciences, past and present.  Paris is a remarkable school, and - if you get to lump the campuses together - certainly belongs on any list of very strong schools.  However, by any reasonable measure they are not the best science school in the world, sorry.

You can defend your silly list all you want, but nobody with any familiarity with many of the schools on it will give it any credibility. 

Why have you posted this?  Hypothesis: this is some kind of project you did, and you couldn't get CHE or anyone else to publish it, so now you are simply posting it here. - DvF

[forest1227]

Your hypothesis is completely invalid. It has nothing to do with my project. Scuola Normale got Fermi, but not much else. You can use any particular case to justify your attack, but it makes no sense. Rgarding the ranking of physical science, it include math. The large number of mathmaticians as a result of much longer history of development is a natural outcome. Paris is historically known as the capital of math. On the otehr hand, Germany has been leading in the field of physical and chemical research until WWII. If you are determined to turn a blind eye to the history of science, there is no point to argue.

[daniel_von_flanagan]

I likely know more about the history of science - including mathematics - than do you.

We have now asked several times why you have posted this.  If my hypothesis is wrong, offer an alternative. - DvF

[forest1227]

There is a double standard here unless you ask it to everyone who has posted an article.

[daniel_von_flanagan]

No, that would be "inconsistency", not "double standard".  And I note that you still aren't answering the question.  - DvF