Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

The Guardian - UK

World

Emma Bullough

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

The third annual Times Higher Education 100 under 50 rankings - a look at the world's top 100 universities under 50 years of age - shows four of the top five spots occupied by East Asian institutions, with South Korea's Pohang University of Science and Technology taking the top spot for the third year in a row.

Swiss university, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology retain second, third and fourth place respectively.

The number of different nations represented in the top 10 remains unchanged at eight. South Korea and France both have two appearances in the top 10 while Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Netherlands, the US, France and the UK all make one appearance each.

Spain is not far from the top 10 - Pompeu Fabra University comes in at 13th alongside the US' University of Illinois at Chicago. Interestingly, Spain appears in the top 100 seven times, one more time than France which does make it into the top 10.

India makes the list for the first time with the inclusion of Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, but mainland China and Russia still fail to make an appearance.

The UK still does well on the rankings but the number of institutions featured in the rankings (14) now matches Australia. In the first rankings in 2012 there were 20 UK universities on the list and in last year's rankings the number dropped to 18. Commenting on the UK's drop in representation, the Times Higher Education state:

The concentration of "plate-glass universities" established in the UK in the early 1960s has led to a steep decline in the country's representation on the 100 Under 50 this year

Only two of the UK's 14 featured universities, Plymouth University and the University of Hertfordshire, were founded after the 1960's in comparison to Australia where the institutions were founded throughout 1960 - 1990's.

The highest placed UK university is Lancaster University, which climbs from 14th to 10th, followed by the University of Warwick (up one place to 12th), the University of Essex (22nd from joint 29th), Brunel University (29th, up from 44th) and the University of Bath (static at joint 34th).

Designed to be "dynamic and forward-looking", the latest results highlight the nations that have seen growth of new universities. Phil Baty, rankings editor, Times Higher Education, says:

The UK shares the accolade of being the best-represented nation in the 100 Under 50, with 14 institutions...but there are warning signs. All but two of the UK's representatives in the list were founded in the 1960s while the ranking is dominated by much younger and higher-placed institutions from strengthening economies that have focused resources on building world-class universities, developing genuine global competitors such as the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and the Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea.

Competition is only going to intensify as more nations and institutions join the race: the UK must work hard not to be left behind

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

• There are 29 countries/regions in the list – one more than last year, with the addition of India
• Eight countries are represented in the top 10: South Korea, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Netherlands, the US, France and the UK
• The youngest institution in the list is Austria's Medical University of Vienna, which was founded in its current form in 2004
• Of the large developing "BRICS" economies, Russia and mainland China do not have a single university in the 100 Under 50, while India and Brazil have one each
• The US has only eight representatives in the table, compared with 46 in the World Reputation Rankings
•Seven universities in the top 100 were founded in 1964 (three from the UK, two from New Zealand and one from Australia and Canada), so will fall out of next year's rankings as a result of age

Despite dominating the World Reputation Rankings 2014 produced by Times Higher Education, the number of times the US appears in the 100 Under 50 list stays the same, with eight appearances, for the third year in a row.

How are they ranked?

According to the Times Higher Education, the ranking uses the same list of 13 performance indicators that underpin its annual world university rankings, but the 100 under 50 league table employs a specially recalibrated methodology to better capture the characteristics of young institutions.

Thirteen indicators across five areas - research, teaching, knowledge transfer and international activity - were taken into account and the rating system was only applied to universities founded in 1964 or later. You can find full details of the methodology here.

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.

Times Higher Education top 100 under 50 rankings, 2014
2014 100 under 50 rank	2013 100 under 50 rank	2013-14 World University Rankings	Institution	Country / Region
1	1	60	Pohang University of Science and Technology	Korea, Republic Of
2	2	37	École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	Switzerland
3	3	56	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology	Korea, Republic Of
4	4	57	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong
5	8	76	Nanyang Technological University	Singapore
6	6	98	Maastricht University	Netherlands
7	5	93	University of California, Irvine	United States
8	10	114	Université Paris-Sud	France
9	9	96	Université Pierre et Marie Curie	France
10	14	137	Lancaster University	United Kingdom
11	11	136	University of California, Santa Cruz	United States
12	13	141	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
=13	19	191	University of Illinois at Chicago	United States
=13	25	164	Pompeu Fabra University	Spain
15	15	188	The University of Texas at Dallas	United States
16	Not ranked	201-225	Universität Ulm	Germany
=17	18	201-225	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=17	17	178	Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7	France
19	23	201-225	University of Calgary	Canada
20	20	226-250	Universität Konstanz	Germany
21	23	226-250	University of Milan-Bicocca	Italy
22	29	251-275	University of Essex	United Kingdom
23	22	226-250	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
=24	26	226-250	Simon Fraser University	Canada
=24	33	251-275	Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences	Sweden
26	32	251-275	Université Montpellier 2	France
27	47	251-275	Sharif University of Technology	Iran
28	40	251-275	The University of Newcastle	Australia
29	44	251-275	Brunel University	United Kingdom
30	34	251-275	The Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong
=31	39	226-250	Bilkent University	Turkey
=31	26	276-300	Queensland University of Technology	Australia
33	43	276-300	University of Wollongong	Australia
=34	34	276-300	University of Bath	United Kingdom
=34	36	276-300	Macquarie University	Australia
36	49	251-275	Medical University of Vienna	Austria
=37	38	276-300	University of Southern Denmark	Denmark
=37	28	301-350	State University of Campinas	Brazil
39	29	301-350	Umeå University	Sweden
40	37	301-350	National Sun Yat-Sen University	Taiwan
41	31	276-300	Koç University	Turkey
=42	53	276-300	Plymouth University	United Kingdom
=42	45	351-400	National Taiwan University of Science and Technology	Taiwan
=44	49	301-350	University of Tsukuba	Japan
=44	46	301-350	University of Waikato	New Zealand
46	51	301-350	Linköping University	Sweden
47	83	301-350	University of Technology, Sydney	Australia
48	53	301-350	University of Crete	Greece
=49	40	301-350	Universität Bayreuth	Germany
=49	48	301-350	University of South Australia	Australia
51	40	301-350	Universität Bielefeld	Germany
52	63	301-350	Heriot-Watt University	United Kingdom
53	61	301-350	University of Eastern Finland	Finland
54	57	301-350	Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1	France
55	71	301-350	Aalborg University	Denmark
56	61	351-400	University of Stirling	United Kingdom
57	59	351-400	George Mason University	United States
58	52	301-350	Autonomous University of Madrid	Spain
59	66	301-350	Deakin University	Australia
=60	75	301-350	University of Hertfordshire	United Kingdom
=60	57	301-350	Murdoch University	Australia
=60	Not ranked	351-400	Ruhr-Universität Bochum	Germany
63	71	351-400	University of Surrey	United Kingdom
64	56	351-400	University of Tromsø	Norway
65	60	351-400	University of Maryland, Baltimore County	United States
66	Not ranked	351-400	University of Rovira i Virgili	Spain
=67	69	351-400	Universität Duisburg-Essen	Germany
=67	74	351-400	National University of Ireland, Maynooth	Ireland
69	77	351-400	Charles Darwin University	Australia
70	64	351-400	Johannes Kepler Universität Linz	Austria
=71	68	351-400	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia
=71	65	351-400	Loughborough University	United Kingdom
=73	84	Not ranked	Florida International University	United States
=73	55	351-400	University of Guelph	Canada
75	76	351-400	University of Minho	Portugal
76	77	351-400	University of Vigo	Spain
77	80	351-400	Polytechnic University of Valencia	Spain
78	79	Not ranked	University of Strathclyde	United Kingdom
79	66	Not ranked	Aveiro University	Portugal
80	97	Not ranked	University of Kent	United Kingdom
81	96	Not ranked	Aston University	United Kingdom
=82	87	Not ranked	Curtin University	Australia
=82	71	Not ranked	Flinders University	Australia
=84	86	Not ranked	Griffith University	Australia
=84	Not ranked	Not ranked	Université du Québec à Montréal	Canada
86	82	Not ranked	Université Paris Dauphine	France
=87	Not ranked	Not ranked	Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati	India
=87	92	Not ranked	New University of Lisbon	Portugal
=87	Not ranked	Not ranked	University of Western Sydney	Australia
90	81	Not ranked	Massey University	New Zealand
91	70	Not ranked	The University of Texas at San Antonio	United States
=92	84	Not ranked	Dublin City University	Ireland
=92	Not ranked	Not ranked	Isfahan University of Technology	Iran
94	Not ranked	Not ranked	Dublin Institute of Technology	Ireland
95	99	Not ranked	Polytechnic University of Catalonia	Spain
=96	Not ranked	Not ranked	Concordia University	Canada
=96	98	Not ranked	National Yang-Ming University	Taiwan
98	93	Not ranked	Tampere University of Technology	Finland
99	Not ranked	Not ranked	Asia University, Taiwan	Taiwan
=100	88	Not ranked	La Trobe University	Australia
=100	Not ranked	Not ranked	University of Rome III	Italy