Asian universities catch up with U.S., Britain

We are down again. It seems the more the management spout their "World leading, world class university" rhetoric the lower we sink in the rankings. The annual pay cuts don't exactly help either.

When you say leading the power shift are you saying Asia have decided to scrap their traditional ways and become a pawn of the Western world?

Headline is wrong. UK and US universities continue to dominate the rankings. "Catch up" means to rise to a level of parity.

We're Japanese private universities not included? Keio and Waseda are nowhere to be found but Tokyo Toritsu is. I find that a bit odd when you consider Japanese perceptions of prestige.

Your answer is in the article - The biggest proportion of a university’s ranking - a third - comes from how frequently its research is cited by academics. - Keio and Waseda are not what I'd call research-intensive universities.

The problem with rankings like this is you can be the world's leading research university, but a crap teaching university. The university I went to was like this. All the award-winning, internationally reknowned professors were busy with their own research projects, leaving the actual teaching job to part time lecturers and associate professors.

Good point papasmurf. I have usually found that the best academics make the worst teachers. A lot of them can't come down to the students' level.

Weird list: Waseda, Keio and Hitotsubashi aren't there but Tokyo Metropolitan University is?

I am sure next year more universities from Japan will make it into the list as the gov't has made this a priority and will be giving 1 billion yen annually to 10 selected universities to help them gain international recognition. The money will be spent to invite internationally renown research fellows and professors to Japan so that they can experience Japanese o-mo-te-na-shi.

I had a friend who went to CalTec, and when he got into an argument with a Japanese friend, the Japanese guy stated "you think you're smart because you graduated from CalTec. I graduated from Todai!", and the other Japanese around nodded in agreement.

These rankings mean nothing to most Japanese people, who will still think Todai is the best of the best anywhere in the world.

@Shinsakuai I was thinking the same thing, too. I also wonder if Sophia and Meiji universities should be somewhere in the list.

Probie, I have met more Todai grads who have done nothing special with their lives who think I should be in awe of them graduating from Todai. I enjoy not giving a damn and watching them wonder why I don't squeal like a pig and praise them.

Speaking of Todai, this classic thread from March.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/ldp-education-proposal-includes-toefl-prerequisite-for-univ-entrance

Gave a sample English test for Todai entrance exam and one poster replied.

"The Todai English test is pretty weird and some of the sentences are not even grammatically correct. Seriously, for example in the first sentence of the paragraph it says:

"When I was eleven, I took violin lessons once a week from a Miss Katie McIntyre"

What the hell? Obviously it was written by some clueless person who can't even speak English properly."

The rest is history.

There is nothing grammatically wrong with that sentence. A bit out-of-fashion, but not incorrect.

University Rankings... the only purpose of these is so the university can raise its tution to astronomical levels because its now a "top 10" school

Used for nothing except for patting their own backs.. what a waste

i wonder what the rankings tell about the universities in the Philippines. Japan is sure to catch up to the US though, it's only a matter of time actually.