UK universities slide down global rankings as China makes its mark

Education

Nearly 60 per cent of top UK universities have fallen in the global rankings as they struggle to maintain their international standing.

Oxford and Cambridge maintained their position as the world’s fourth and fifth best universities, but dozens of others fell because their graduates were less employable and the quality of research had dropped, according to the Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR), based in the United Arab Emirates.

The centre’s league table lists the 2,000 best-performing universities in the world, including 93 British institutions. Edinburgh, York and Warwick were among the 55 to fall down the rankings.

Six maintained their spots, including King’s College London in 40th and Cardiff in 156th, while 32, including University College London, Imperial College and Bristol, improved their position.

Of the Russell Group’s 24 research-intensive universities, six institutions ranked better compared with last year, four maintained their spots, and 14 ranked lower.

The authors said that the UK had fallen back because of growing competition from around the world. China has ploughed investment into higher education and 96 per cent of its universities climbed in the rankings, led by Tsinghua University at number 44. All nine institutions of the C9 League, the Chinese version of the American Ivy League, improved their rankings this year.

Dr Nadim Mahassen, president of the CWUR, said: “While the results of this year’s study confirm that the United Kingdom has an outstanding higher education system, the broader story for the nation is concerning, with nearly 60 per cent of UK universities falling down the standings due to intensified global competition from well-funded institutions, particularly from China.

“Efforts must be made to ensure that the UK continues to attract top academics and students, that increasing enrolment numbers at universities come alongside increases in teaching capacity, and that tertiary education expenditure as a percentage of the national GDP steadily grows in the years to come.”

In total, 20,531 universities were ranked, and the Global 2,000 list came from 95 countries. Harvard was ranked as the world’s top university, followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford. Of the top 20 universities, 16 were in the United States.

After Oxbridge, the best British universities were University College London, Imperial College London and King’s College London, followed by Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol. All were in the world’s top 100 universities.

Institutions in Europe and the US also fell back, and the report’s authors said the UK’s rankings had held up better than French, German, Japanese and American universities.

The UK remained the university powerhouse of Europe with four of the top ten institutions and nine in the global top 50, two more than second-placed France.