The recent World University Ranking from The Times Higher Education Supplement puts Harvard University as number 1, followed by University on Cambridge, University of Oxford and Yale University.
The Nordic top list looks like this:
1. Uppsala University (#71)
2. University of Copenhagen (#93)
3. University of Helsinki (#100)
4. Lund University (#106)
5. University of Aarhus (#114)
6. Technical University of Denmark (#130)
7. TKK – Helsinki University of Technology (#170)
8. University of Oslo (#188)
9. KTH – Royal Institute of Technology (#192)
10. Chalmers (#197)
See the full list here
This could be compared with the Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranking of 2007, which also puts Harvard University as number 1, followed by Stanford University and University California – Berkeley.
The Nordic top list according to Shanghai Jiao Tong University looks like this:
1. University of Copenhagen (#46)
2. Karolinska Institutet (#53)
3. Uppsala University (#66)
4. University of Oslo (#69)
5. University of Helsinki (#73)
6. Stockholm University (#86)
7. Lund Universy (#97)
See the full list here
Both these rankings are dominated by large universities and technical universities. Karolinska Institutet (medical university) is placed high on the Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranking but absent from The Times list. There are no business schools in any of the rankings.
OECD is also planning to start university rankings in 2010, according to the last issue of The Economist (November 17th). The difference is that OECD attempts to focus on how successfully universities teach.
“[Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University and the Times Higher Education Supplement] reflect ‘inputs’ such as the number and quality of staff, as well as how many prizes they win and how many articles the publish. [The idea of OECD] is to look at the end result – how much knowledge is really being imparted”
Read the full article here