Harvard Takes First In International Ranking

Harvard took the top ranking in the seventh annual Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), which was published this week by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, offering a comparison of over 1000 schools worldwide.

The study came on the heels of China’s establishment of the C9, an Ivy League-like group of nine universities in China intended to raise the profile of Chinese education. But while the rankings bore good news for Harvard, none of the ARWU’s top 200 schools was in China.

Fernando M. Reimers, a professor of international education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, said that the ranking criteria included indicators such as the number of alumni who have received a Nobel Prize, or professors who have conducted respected research.

“The ranking began as a way to measure the quality of higher education in China,” Reimers said. According to Reimers, China’s efforts to improve education are part of the country’s greater push to allow more people to benefit from the country’s economic progress.

Reimers said that, despite Harvard’s high spot in the ranking, there was much for America to learn from China’s education system, where schools, for instance, have a greater focus on reaching out to the public.

But China, Reimers said, also is learning from American schools. “People in China have valued education for a long time,” said Reimers. “But their schools are more geared to passing the college entrance exam. They look to U.S. Schools and research universities because we promote students thinking independently and creatively.”