QS World University Rankings 2015/16

LONDON, Sept. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on web traffic* social media metrics** and estimated online consumers (>100m in 2015); the QS World University Rankings is by far the most popular annual league table of world universities.

The twelfth edition confirms Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as the world's top university followed by Harvard (2nd), Cambridge and Stanford (3rd=) while ETH Zurich (9th) breaks into the top 10.

Singapore's leading universities gain substantially, each making the top 15 for the first time. National University of Singapore (12th) is the leading Asian institution and Nanyang Technological University (13th) is right behind them, taking a quantum leap.

Australian National University (19^th) also returns to the top 20.

China's Tsinghua University (25^th) is Asia's third best university, leading a strong Chinese cohort.

76,798 academics and 44,226 employers contributed to the rankings through the QS global surveys, the largest of their kind and QS analyzed 11.1 million research papers - indexed by Elsevier's Scopus database. 3,539 institutions were considered for inclusion and 891 ranked.

A modified approach to "citations per faculty", a measure of research impact, has delivered fairer evaluations for universities with a strong profile in areas with lower research activity, such as arts, humanities and social sciences. LSE (35th) and other leading institutions traditionally overshadowed by research-intensive universities, see their excellence more equitably recognized.

Ben Sowter, QS head of research says: "These latest results reveal more diversity than ever in the distribution of world-class universities at the highest levels. We're providing prospective students with the richest picture yet."

(c) QS Quacquarelli Symonds 2004-2015 http://www.TopUniversities.com

The rankings include universities from 82 countries. Thirty-four countries feature in the Top 200. The United States dominate, with 49 institutions, ahead of the UK (30), Netherlands (12), Germany (11), Canada, Australia, and Japan (8), China (7), France, Sweden and Hong Kong (5).

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