US loses one in five top spots in global subject ranking

The United States’ higher education system is continuing to decline in the global rankings, losing almost 20% of top rankings for its university departments in the 2019 QS World University Rankings by

The United States’ higher education system is continuing to decline in the global rankings, losing almost 20% of top rankings for its university departments in the 2019 QS World University Rankings by Subject, which ranks more than 1,200 universities in 78 locations across 48 single subjects and five broad subject areas.

The number of number-one ranks held by US universities decreases from 34 in 2018 to 28 in 2019, with particularly significant losses recorded in liberal arts subjects, according to QS analysis.

Harvard University nevertheless remains the world leader, ranking number one for 12 subjects, down from 14 last year.

QS said Switzerland has become the world’s third-best higher education system in terms of top-10 ranks, overtaking Australia. Impressive performances from ETH Zurich mean that only the United States and United Kingdom occupy more top-10 places.

However, the United Kingdom has performed well despite Brexit uncertainty, increasing its share of number-one ranks from 10 to 13 and improving research performance across the board.

In this year’s edition, the UK’s share of top research departments, measured by citations per paper, has risen to 13.7%, while the US’s share has dropped to 41.2%.

Ben Sowter, research director at QS, said: “The major narrative emerging here is the perhaps inexorable erosion of United States' pre-eminence. Since 2015, it has lost 10% of its top-ranked research departments, with China, Australia and the United Kingdom the major beneficiaries.

“UK research performance stays strong despite considerable funding cuts, though the contribution that European Union research collaboration has made to this success cannot be understated.”

By country the US tops the list for number of top-10 departments with 234, followed by the UK (137), Switzerland (22), Australia (18), Canada (15), Singapore (14), Netherlands (12), Italy (6), Mainland China (4) and Sweden (4).

In Asia, Singapore remains the outstanding system, with more top-10 university departments than the rest of the continent’s universities combined. But China continues to increase its competitiveness, recording a higher share of top-50 departments than ever.

Elsewhere Brazil remains embattled, declining at a rate greater than the Latin American average.

Across all categories (top 1/10/20/100/200), the US leads with 2,705, followed by the UK with 1,253 and Australia in third spot with 666, narrowly holding off Mainland China with 652 and Germany with 649, while Canada lies sixth with 558.

However, advances made by Chinese universities in research impact, as measured by ‘citations per paper’, continue to threaten the dominance of institutions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, with China’s research impact projected by QS to overtake Canada’s between 2022 and 2025.

“China’s research juggernaut is backed by significant amounts of ambition, co-ordination and investment, and their vast resources will only make competition increasingly difficult,” Sowter said.

Africa

This year 169 African universities are ranked, 29 more than last year. The majority of that increase stems from Egypt, which now has 48 departments ranked across seven universities – an increase of 21 year-on-year.

However, South Africa remains the continent’s dominant higher education ecosystem. Seven South African universities see 113 departments ranked, accounting for well over half of the continent’s total. But 24 of South Africa’s departments drop in rank while only 20 improve in rank.

The University of Cape Town ranks ninth globally for development studies, up one place, and three other South African university departments rank among the world’s top 50 for their subject.

Other top-50 departments can be found at the University of the Witwatersrand, which is 13th for mining engineering and 18th for development studies, and the University of Pretoria, which ranks 43rd for veterinary science.

Cairo University remains Egypt’s pre-eminent university, ranked in 20 subject tables and achieving top-200 ranks in six. Ain Shams University is Egypt’s fastest-emerging university, increasing its representation from one department ranked in 2018 to nine departments ranked in 2019.

Other African nations to include at least one ranked department are Uganda (three, no change), Ghana (two, up one), and Kenya and Nigeria (one each).

QS’s Sowter said the results show that South Africa remains home to faculty whose academic standards and research output are “up there with the world’s best”, and there is “little evidence that the higher education systems in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana are eroding this dominance, though it is also true that, beyond the headline successes, South Africa has also stagnated on the global stage”.

He noted that the employability results received by South African universities are lower than in previous years, “which may cause some concern for stakeholders in a nation keen to use higher education as a means of developing its human capital.”

Asia

In Asia, Singapore remains dominant at the very top of the rankings, with 14 departments among the top 10 of the 48 subject tables.

Singapore’s universities continue to improve, with 41 of its 76 ranked university departments improving their position year-on-year.

These results come in the context of widespread Asian malaise at the very top, with China, South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan all regressing, although China has made impressive strides across the whole ranking below the top.

In total, 14 Singaporean subject offerings are ranked in the global top 10. This is more than the combined totals of China (4), Hong Kong (3) and Japan (3). No other Asian location has a top-10 university in any subject table.

The highest rank of any Singaporean university is achieved by the National University of Singapore, rising from sixth to second in the civil and structural engineering table, having overtaken the University of Cambridge and the University of California at Berkeley.

Nanyang Technological University remains the world’s third-best university for the study of materials science.

Of Singapore’s 14 top-10 performances, nine are achieved by the National University of Singapore, while five are achieved by Nanyang Technological University.

QS’s Sowter said: “Singapore has long been Asia’s most successful higher education system in our rankings, but there is some evidence that its ascendancy may be beginning to increase further. With China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan all seeing their number of top-10 and top-20 places decrease, Singapore is the only major Asian higher education system to record consistent improvements.”

In total, of 652 departments across 77 Chinese universities ranked, 253 improved their rank, while only 103 saw their rank decline, and 185 departments remained in the same position.

These results provide further evidence of overall progress for the Mainland Chinese higher education system.

However, Mainland China’s universities have also lost representation at the very top of the rankings. There is one fewer Mainland Chinese university among the top 10 of the 48 subject tables, and three fewer Mainland Chinese universities among the top 20.

Nevertheless, Mainland Chinese universities are continuing to become more globally competitive, with the number of Mainland Chinese departments among the top 50 in the world for their subject increasing year-on-year – up to 97, nine more than last year.

China Agricultural University achieves a top-10 placement for the first time (10th), with only two other mainland Chinese universities – Tsinghua University and Peking University – making at least one appearance in a global top 10.

Peking University has more top-50 departments than any other Mainland Chinese university with 28, followed by Tsinghua University with 22, Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University with 10 each and Zhejiang University with five.

Tsinghua University’s civil and structural engineering department is Mainland China’s strongest subject performer, ranking ninth globally.

Australia

The Australian sector still remains home to numerous outstanding subject providers. Australian National University in particular performs strongly, ranking among the global top 10 for seven different subjects – a year-on-year increase of three.

Australia retains 18 top-10 departments, the same as last year.

Five Australian universities achieve more than 20 top-50 departments. They are: the University of Melbourne (38 top-50 departments), the University of Sydney (30), Australian National University (26), Monash University (25), and the University of Queensland (24).

However, there are signs that the sector may be in deteriorating health lower down the rankings. While Australian universities still retain 201 departments among the top 50 in the world, this is nine fewer than in last year’s instalment of the tables. Its number of top-100 departments has also decreased – from 356 to 340.

Employer reputation has fallen badly, with the number of Australian departments scoring 90/100 or above for ‘employer reputation’ almost halved, falling from 66 to 36. Sowter said this was “indicative of the urgent efforts being made by universities around the world to strengthen the links between education and work”.

The Australian higher education sector enjoys particular success in the field of mineral and mining engineering, with four of the world’s top-10 universities for this discipline hailing from Australia. They are: Curtin University (second globally), the University of Western Australia (fourth), the University of Queensland (fifth), and the University of New South Wales (sixth). All of the latter three institutions improve their position this year.

Monash University ranks third globally for the study of pharmacy and pharmacology.

Latin America

Of the 555 Latin American university departments ranked, 129 have declined in rank, while 89 have improved their rank, constituting “systemic relative decline”, QS says. Latin American representation at the top-50, top-100 and top-200 level has also decreased year-on-year.

The anomaly is Colombian higher education, which has improved its performance year-on-year. It is the only major Latin American nation to increase its representation in the top-50, top-100 and top-200 bands, and has seen consistent increases in its scores for QS’s ‘employer reputation’ metric.

However, in terms of the number of departments in the top 50, Mexico (with 13) edges Brazil (11), with Chile (7), Argentina (4) and Colombia (2) following, but Brazil leads on departments in the top 100 and top 200.

The highest rank achieved by any Latin American university department this year is eighth, attained by the Universidad de Chile’s mineral and mining engineering department.

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México or UNAM is home to more top-50 departments than any other university on the continent (13), while Brazil’s Universidade de São Paulo has more top-100 places with 28 compared to 26.

The average scores received by Latin America’s universities for research productivity (H-index) and research impact (citations per paper) have increased year-on-year: this constitutes systemic improvement.

Middle East

QS ranked 145 departments across eight Middle Eastern nations, an increase of 60% on last year, with 33 departments improving their rank, and 18 departments declining in rank.

Saudi Arabia remains the region’s dominant higher education system. Some 56 of its departments are ranked, and 28 of the 33 top-200 ranks achieved by Middle Eastern universities are attributable to Saudi Arabian institutions.

Sowter said: “We do not expect any Middle Eastern higher education system to disrupt Saudi Arabia’s regional hegemony for the present time.”

Iran is second-best placed with 32 departments ranked, followed by United Arab Emirates (19), Lebanon (13), Jordan (12), Qatar (7), Oman (4) and Kuwait (2).

North America

The United States’ higher education system has continued to decline, losing almost 20% of its top rankings for its departments in a year, and recording deeper deteriorations in liberal arts disciplines.

But Harvard University remains the world’s outstanding university, ranking number one in 12 subjects, closely followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ranking first in 11 subjects.

Since 2015, the United States has lost 10% of its top-performing research departments – defined by QS as those that achieve a top-100 score for QS’s ‘citations per paper’ indicator in their subject. In 2015, the US was home to 45.3% of the world’s top research departments. But this share has now dropped to 41.2%.

There has been a similar decline in QS’s arts and humanities table, though at a quicker rate. Year-on-year, the number of US institutions among the top 100 for the study of arts and humanities has decreased from 311 to 269 – a 13% fall.

A decline of similar proportions occurs further down the table, with the number of top-200 arts and humanities institutions decreasing from 477 to 428.

QS’s Sowter, pointing to the causes of the “perhaps unstoppable” erosion of the United States’ pre-eminence, said: “China’s relentless investment – designed to expand its research capacity and improve ranking performance – is creating increasing competition for US universities.”

“Furthermore, funding cuts and international student mobility restrictions are undermining the world’s leading university ecosystem.”

Canada’s higher education sector has consolidated its status as the world’s third best in terms of research performance, as measured by QS’s ‘citations per paper’ indicator, holding off advances from Chinese universities.

Also, some 15 Canadian university departments rank among the top 10 for their subject, with the University of British Columbia rising to number one for library and information management.

In total, 557 Canadian university departments are ranked. A total of 123 departments drop in rank, while 139 improve their rank. The remainder remain stable, or are new entrants this year.

Last year, the difference in the number of top-50 departments between Canada and its nearest rival, China, narrowed from 60 to 49. This year, the gap remains at 49, indicating that China’s relative rise and Canada’s relative decline have both stalled. However, when research impact is the metric being considered, the gap continues to narrow.

In 2015, Canada was home to 5.2% of the world’s leading research departments – those receiving a top-100 score in their subject for QS’s ‘citations per paper’ metric. China was, in 2015, home to 2.0% of the world’s top-100 research departments – a gap of 3.2%.

In this edition of the rankings, Canada is home to 4.8% of the world’s top research departments while China is home to 2.9%, having nearly halved the gap between it and Canada.

Canada’s strongest department for nurturing graduate employability is the anatomy and physiology department at the University of Toronto, which receives a score of 99.7/100 for QS’s ‘employer reputation’ indicator.

Sowter said: “There is still much that is good about Canadian higher education. It remains the world’s fourth-best research nation, though it has recently lost third place to Australia. However, if the year-on-year trends we’ve seen for research leadership continue, then China will also overtake Canada at some point between 2022 or 2025, depending on whether one adopts our most or least optimistic model.”

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom’s universities occupy 13 number-one ranks, an increase of three on last year, suggesting resilience despite the uncertainty for higher education caused by the Brexit negotiations that have dragged on since the referendum in 2016 and remain unresolved.

The UK’s higher education sector occupies more top-10 positions across the 48 subject tables than at any point in the last five years. It also records an improvement in UK research competitiveness that further erodes United States hegemony in this area, according to QS.

British universities have increased the number of top-10 ranks they occupy from 125 in 2018, to 137 in 2019.

The University of Oxford ranks as the world’s best university for the study of five subjects: English language and literature, pharmacy and pharmacology, archaeology, anthropology, and geography.

The University of Cambridge has risen to number one for the study of anatomy and physiology, while University College London’s constituent schools rank number one for education and architecture/built environment.

The University of Sussex remains the world’s top university for development studies, continuing to rank above Harvard University (second) and the University of Oxford (third).

The UK has one of the world’s top-three universities in 34 of the 48 subject tables.

There is also evidence of improvement in UK research performance. In 2015’s edition of the rankings, the US was home to 45.3% of top research departments – those achieving one of the top-100 scores for their subject in QS’s ‘citations per paper’ indicator – with the United Kingdom home to 12.5% of top research departments.

In this year’s edition, the UK’s share of top research departments has risen to 13.7%, while the US’s share has dropped to 41.2%.

QS’s Sowter said: “For those anxious about the fortunes of the UK’s world-leading higher education sector, this year’s rankings will provide some reassurance that the sector’s performance remains highly competitive, and that students and faculty alike are contributing to world-class universities across a range of disciplines.”

“However, the research data used to compile this edition was collected between 2013 and 2018, and the impact that the imminent exit from the European Union will have on UK performance is still unknown.”

He said that much of the highly-cited research that has contributed to the UK’s success this year will have come about as a result of collaboration with EU universities, and as a consequence of participation in EU schemes, including Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+. Horizon 2020 allowed universities access to a pool of funding totalling €80 billion (US$91 billion). Currently the future of UK participation in both schemes is up in the air.