National Taiwan University (NTU) has dropped in this year’s World Reputation Rankings, which were published on Wednesday.
The school, which was listed last year in the 51st-60th band, fell this year to the 61st-70th band, according to the rankings — a list of the world’s 100 most prestigious universities as determined by a survey of senior academics across the world and published by Times Higher Education magazine.
The magazine gives individual rankings to the first 50 universities and lists the other 50 in bands of 10.
Magazine rankings editor Phil Baty said NTU’s drop is bad news and sends a warning to the school that the slide could continue if it fails to take measures to regain its former ranking. NTU has been in the top 100 since 2011, when the World Reputation Rankings were first published.
NTU dean for research and development Lee Fang-jen (李芳仁) said reputation rankings can fluctuate significantly, because they are based purely on the subjective opinions of academics.
The university has made great progress in the areas of teaching and research, Lee said, adding that the drop in rankings might mean that other schools have made even greater strides.
This year, US and UK universities dominated the top 10 places, with Harvard University at No. 1, Cambridge University in second place and Oxford University third.
The top 10 was rounded out by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley; Princeton University; Yale University; the California Institute of Technology; and Columbia University, in that order.
Japan’s University of Tokyo placed 12th and was the top-ranked school in Asia.
Universities in the US held 43 of the top 100 places, while schools in the UK held 12 and Germany six.
China and Hong Kong each had two universities listed in the top 100 global rankings, with the two Chinese schools both advancing significantly from last year. Tsinghua University rose 10 places to 26th, while Peking University climbed nine spots to 32nd.
Lee said that while Japan, South Korea and China have continued to increase funding for their major universities, the Ministry of Education has reduced its financial assistance for higher education.
For instance, the ministry’s annual financial assistance to NTU has been cut in recent years from NT$3.1 billion (US$98.1 million) to NT$2.2 billion this year, he said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Education Chen Der-hwa (陳德華) said Taiwan’s universities can use various world rankings for reference, but should not worry too much about fluctuations or allow themselves to be too greatly influenced by such indicators.
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