ETH Zurich now occupies 24th place in the global ranking of institutions of higher education published by the “Times Higher Education Supplement” on Friday 6 October 2006. This means it has lost three places compared to 2005. According to this ranking list, Harvard University is again the world’s best institution of higher education, although less unchallenged than last year: both of England’s top universities, Cambridge and Oxford, are hard on its heels. In fact according to the scientists who were questioned for the ranking, the two English institutions of higher education are actually ahead of Harvard.

Kontinentaleuropa: Ecole Normale Supérieure und ETH

As in previous years, the Top Ten are dominated by other Anglo-Saxon institutions of higher education, mainly American ones. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has dropped from 2nd to 4th place and is now neck and neck with Yale. They are followed by Stanford, Cal Tech, Berkeley, Imperial College London (up from 13 to 9) and Princeton. This means that Imperial College, with which ETH is associated in the IDEA League, has for the first time successfully made the leap to the top ten.

Looking at the continental European Institutions, ETH Zurich must on this occasion admit to being beaten only by the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, which advanced from 24th to 18th place. A French institution of higher education, the Ecole Polytechnique, had already penetrated the phalanx of Anglo-Saxon universities last year. However, it was forced to accept a considerable downgrading this year: it drops from 10th place to 37th.

A leap ahead at Geneva and Basel

Relative to Europe, ETH Zurich was able to defend its 6th place from last year and thus remains in the leading group. The University of Geneva has made a giant leap forwards, improving its position in the world ranking list by almost 50 places, and is now in 39th place. This means it is a new entrant to the Top Ten in Europe. The next Swiss institution of higher education is EPF Lausanne: it is listed in 16th place in Europe, globally in 64th place – a distinct loss as it was still in position 34 in the World Ranking 2005. On the other hand the University of Basel, like Geneva, has improved its position enormously: it leapfrogged 52 places and now ranks 75th. That means 23rd place in Europe. The University of Lausanne is only slightly behind, having also improved strongly, and is in 31st place throughout Europe (globally: 89; 2005: 133). On this European scale the University of Zurich occupies 45th position. Worldwide it ranks 109th (2005: 85th).

Asia: forward trend confirmed

Institutions of higher education from a total of 30 countries figure in the “Times” list of the world’s 200 best universities. As in the previous year, Asian institutions of higher education show a marked presence in the positions between 10 and 30. For example the University of Beijing has consolidated its position, having gained one place, and is now Number 14 in the world. The National University of Singapore has also moved up (from 22 to 19) and now ranks equal with the University of Tokyo. The jump that Hong Kong University has made is also remarkable: it improved from place 41 to 33, thus leaving behind it the Carnegie Mellon University, for example.

Alterations to the methods

A consideration of the methods used for the ranking reveals only innovations in the details compared to last year. As before, a peer review of active researchers questioned throughout the world forms the most important criterion and contributes 40 percent to the assessment. According to Martin Ince, the co-ordinator of the Rankings, the number of respondents increased from 2375 to 3703 and responses from the years 2004 and 2005 were also included again.

Qualitative and quantitative criteria, half each: the “Times Higher Education Supplement” has published its ranking of the world’s 200 best higher education institutions for the third time.

Statements by a total of 736 (2005: 333) large business enterprises regarding the suitability of the respective higher education institution graduates for the employment market were weighted at a further ten percent. They include companies from the services, transport, production and finance industry sectors. However, public employers were also questioned.

These 50 percent of qualitative criteria are joined by several more quantitative criteria, also weighted at 50 percent. As last year, cited research by members of the respective higher education institutions is weighted at 20 percent. The evaluation is based on data from the “Essential Science Indicators” published by Thomson Scientific in Philadelphia. The time horizon examined here was shortened compared to last year. Only five years (2001 - 2006) are now examined retrospectively here instead of ten years. “This increases the measured variable’s dynamic range and modifying power. Nonetheless we obtain an amount of data that is sufficiently statistically relevant,” writes Martin Ince. To determine the specific weighting of research in a higher educational institution, the number of citations was divided by the number of staff.

As last year, the teacher-student ratio was also weighted at 20 percent. The number of foreign students again contributed 5 percent to the assessment. The number of international lecturers at the universities had the same significance value.

ETH stronger in citations

Looking at the ETH assessment in more detail reveals that it has improved in important areas compared to 2005, and even reached a higher overall points count (2006: 59.7; 2005: 53.5). In the evaluation by peers it won 51 out of 100 points (2005: 49). ETH improved markedly in the employability of its graduates: whereas it got only 7 points for this in 2005, it obtained 25 this year. There was also a clear growth in the citations: in this respect ETH jumped from 8 to 23 points. In comparison ETH lost slightly in the number of international lecturers (from 98 to 84).