Stephen Vasciannie
LAST WEEK, I reproduced a list of the top 20 universities in the world, ranked by the Times Higher Education Supplement. That list included Harvard, MIT, Cambridge, Oxford and Stanford as the top five. Of the top 20 listed, 12 are located in the United States, four in the United Kingdom, and one each in France, China, Japan and Australia. Assuming that there is inherent bias in the survey, this represents a strong statement about the superior quality of Anglo-American tertiary level institutions.
TRADITION AND MONEY
It may also represent a strong statement about tradition and money. Most of the universities in the top 200 have a long tradition of academic excellence, with some being regarded, whether modestly or immodestly, as 'ancient universities'. At the same time, it is not a criticism to suggest that the American institutions in the top 20 benefit significantly from their resource base. These universities - Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Yale and so on - can claim access to funding that make even most Oxbridge colleges blush.
In several instances, too, wealthy American universities benefit from substantial contributions from former students: as a matter of course many Americans are inclined to support the institutions that put them on the path of economic viability. This is not only a question of gratitude (though there is that, of course); it is also a question of tradition. There is an expectation that you will support your university, and the university is keen to encourage this way of thinking both by treating you well when you are a student, and by fostering the sense that you are still a part of the university community when you move on.
DEVELOPING WORLD
As I noted in the previous column, very few universities from the developing world make it into the top 200. Although Third World conditions prevail in many parts of China, that country is probably best regarded as 'sui generis': an approach that is reflected, for instance, in the term 'Group of 77 and China', used to denote the broad developing country grouping within the United Nations. Beijing University comes in at number 15 in the ranking, while two Hong Kong universities come in at 41 and 43, respectively.
The Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Management are ranked at numbers 50 and 84, respectively, while the National University of Singapore is highly placed at number 22, some distance ahead of the Nanyang Technological University, another Singaporean product, which comes in at number 48. South Korea has at least three universities in the top 200; Chulalongkorn University in Thailand (at 121) and Malaya University in Malaysia (at 169) may be counted among the Third World countries that have made the top 200.
Of course, Jamaicans have a long tradition of going abroad to study. This tradition has ebbed and flowed since the establishment of the University of the West Indies and other local institutions. Most of us, therefore, will know of people who have gone overseas to advance their education; and some of us may be interested to know whether familiar names make the top 200.
FAMILIAR NAMES
With this in mind, I have picked out some of the names for brief mention. Among Canadian universities, McGill (ranked 24th) is slightly ahead of the University of Toronto (at 29); the University of Waterloo comes in at 159, and McMaster University is at 184. Among the United Kingdom universities most familiar to Jamaicans (following the top 20) are University College, London (at 28), Edinburgh University (at 30), Manchester University (at 35), Bristol (at 49), Kings College London (at 73), Warwick (at 77), Durham (at 83) and Sussex University (at 100). I believe Sussex will have good cause to grumble, as will Trinity College Dublin (at 111) and St. Andrews University (at 136).
Finally, among the American colleges beyond the top 20, you will find Johns Hopkins in 27th place, Pennsylvania University at 32, University of Michigan
at 36, UCLA at 37, Boston University at 54, NYU at 56, Penn State at 64, Brown at 71, Virginia University at 105, Michigan State at 121, Georgia Institute of Technology at 147, Georgetown at 159 and Tufts at 164.
These rankings may be more scientific than your usual television survey on prime time news, but that is not high praise. All the same, we can be sure that North American institutions will be fighting with all their might to move up the rankings by next year.
Stephen Vasciannie is a professor at the University of the West Indies and a consultant in the Attorney General's chambers.
