GLOBAL
higher education times (THE) has again drawn on existing data from its rankings to produce another, ‘Most International Universities in the World 2023’, aimed primarily at students. It seems that size, language, history, and geography combine to make universities in some countries highly international, especially Hong Kong.
While universities in Hong Kong, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Singapore occupy the top 10 in the 2023 ranking, English-speaking countries, or those with English-teaching universities, dominate among the top 200 universities in the 2023 edition. 2023 of the ranking, published on Wednesday, January 25.
Hans de Wit, a distinguished fellow and professor emeritus at the Boston College Center for International Higher Education in the United States, said it is not surprising that institutions in smaller countries perform better in the ranking of “most international universities” than overall. . THE World University Rankings 2023.
“The reason is that these universities in smaller countries have multiple borders and attract students and staff from beyond these borders: Hong Kong from mainland China; Switzerland from Germany, France and Italy; the Netherlands from Germany; Singapore Malaysia and the region.
“That gives them an added advantage over and above their international reputation, co-authorship, and general international recruitment of students and staff,” he said. News from the University World.
Some 32 countries appear in the ranking. There are 15 UK universities, all in the top 50 of the list, joined by many institutions from the Netherlands (seven), Australia (seven) and Canada (three), perhaps a reflection of the attractiveness of English.
There are 60 US universities, but with rather low ratios of international students, staff, and publications; most fall between 50 and 150. The first of China’s 18 universities hits 128. Other countries with a good number of universities on the list include Germany (12), Japan (11), Russian Federation (8), France (7) and South Korea (six).
top 10
For the third consecutive year, the University of Hong Kong ranked first in the THE Ranking of most international universities. Swiss universities École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and ETH Zurich took second and third place, although in a different order than last year.
The City University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University ranked fourth, fifth, and sixth respectively.
It is followed by the UK’s Imperial College London and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and at number 10 is the National University of Singapore.
British and, to a lesser extent, Singaporean institutions rank not far behind their positions in THE‘s World University Rankings 2023, but, as Hans de Wit commented, institutions from Hong Kong and Switzerland score much higher in the international ranking than in the overall. THE classification measures.
For example, the City University of Hong Kong ranked 99th in 2023 THE world ranking, and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University was in position 79.
In the case of Hong Kong, the use of English, history as a highly internationalized former colony, and geographical and historical connections to China have combined to create universities that are highly international in terms of students, staff, and publications. These factors may be enhanced by high levels of multiple university affiliations among academic staff.
The connection with China is more recent. Figures from the University Grants Committee (UGC) show 86,000 students on government-funded full-time courses in Hong Kong in the 2021-22 academic year, the South China Morning Mail reported this month.
In another article from last October, also citing UGC figures, South China Morning Mail reported 8,622 mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong public universities, 10% of the student population. The number of students from the mainland has increased considerably.
Seeta Bhardwa, editor of The studentsaid in a press release that 43% of the more than 18,000 students at the University of Hong Kong are international, teaching is in English and has an international focus, aiming to prepare global citizens who can succeed anywhere .
“The university plans to expand its international reach and recruit more staff and students from abroad, with the goal of becoming ‘Asia’s global university,’” he added.
EPFL in Switzerland has an even higher proportion of international students: 62% of 11,000. ETH Zurich has about 22,000 students from more than 120 countries.
the survey
The data for the ranking of international universities comes mainly from the ‘international perspective’ pillar of the THE World University Rankings 2023: Institution proportions of international students (25%) and staff (25%) and journal publications with at least one international co-author (25%).
Another 25% of the ranking score is the international reputation of a university, based on the proportion of votes from outside the home country achieved in THEAnnual academic reputation survey, in which 30,000 academics name the world’s best universities in their field.
“Only institutions that received at least 300 votes in the survey were eligible for inclusion,” he said. THE in the press release. Universities must also receive at least 150 or 10% of the available national votes to be ranked.
Hans de Wit said that the main change in methodology in the ranking of the ‘most international universities’ has been the inclusion of 25% for international reputation, and that has had a considerable impact on universities.
That is why UK universities have risen in the rankings. “But also some universities have gone down or even, for example Maastricht University in the Netherlands, which was higher in previous rankings but is now not there anymore, while other Dutch universities that have more reputation have gone up.”
“THE should make it clearer that they are comparing apples and pears in this ranking as a result,” De Wit said. News from the University World.
“What is even more important is that the claim to be ‘more international’ on the basis of the four THE The indicators say nothing about the quality of the internationalization of universities, in particular about their international teaching and learning, nor about their international social responsibility.
