Tsinghua beats MIT for top computer science spot in global ranking

While US schools hold the top spots in most of the subject rankings of the just-released 2018 Best Global Universities rankings, there are certain fields in which non-US schools came out on top. Tsinghua University holds the No 1 spot in both computer science and engineering. The Chinese institute overtook the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for the top computer science rank this year.

The gateway arch of Tsinghua University in Beijing. [Photo: VCG]

Besides, China's Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Zhejiang University hold the No 9 and No 10 spots in computer science. The City University of Hong Kong, Shanghai Jiaotong University, and Southeast University based in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province, ranked 12, 17, and 20 respectively in the same sector.

US News & World Report, the global authority in education rankings for more than 30 years, released the 2018 Best Global Universities rankings on Oct 24, 2017. The overall rankings evaluate 1,250 universities – up from 1,000 last year – across 74 countries and are the largest and most comprehensive assessment of research universities worldwide, according to a news release of PRNewswire.

Among the 1,250 schools ranked, 17.7 percent are located in the United States, a slight decrease from 21 percent in 2017. The next most well-represented country on the list is China, where 136 universities made the list.

Harvard University is once again the top-ranked school overall. The Ivy League institute also holds the top spot in 10 of the 22 subject-specific rankings this year. Another Massachusetts school, located in the same city as Harvard, is again No 2 overall: the MIT.

It's mainly US universities that round out the overall top 10, except for two British schools: the University of Oxford, ranked No 5, and the University of Cambridge, ranked No 7. Oxford moved up one spot from the last edition, while Cambridge remained in the same position.

2018 best global universities

Top 10 universities in Chinese mainland

1. Tsinghua University, Beijing (No 64)

2. Peking University, Beijing (No 65)

3. University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui (No 145)

4. Fudan University, Shanghai (No 148)

5. Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai (No 156)

6. Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang (No 159)

7. Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu (No 190)

8. Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong (No 237)

9. Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei (No 282)

10. Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang (No 304)

Harvard Museum of Natural History [Photo: VCG]

Top 5 universities in Asia

1. National University of Singapore

2. Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)

3. University of Tokyo (Japan)

4. Tsinghua University (China)

5. Peking University (China)

Top 10 overall best global universities

1. Harvard University (US)

2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)

3. Stanford University (US)

4. University of California—Berkeley (US)

5. University of Oxford (UK)

6. California Institute of Technology (US)

7. University of Cambridge (UK)

8. Columbia University (US)

9. Princeton University (US)

10. Johns Hopkins University (US) (tie)

10. University of Washington (US) (tie)

10. Yale University (US) (tie)

"The schools that rank the highest in the Best Global Universities rankings are those that emphasize academic research, including by partnering with international scholars to produce highly cited articles," said Robert Morse, chief data strategist at US News. "This is different from the Best Colleges rankings, which measure the overall quality of undergraduate institutions in the US and focus on student outcomes such as graduation and retention rates."

The Best Global Universities rankings are based on data and metrics provided by Clarivate Analytics InCites. They are calculated using a methodology that focuses on a school's research performance and reputation, not its specific undergraduate or graduate programs. This is a separate methodology than those used for other US News rankings such as Best Colleges and Best Graduate Schools.