East Asia continue to produce best “young” universities: Times 100 Under 50 Rankings 2014

South Korea’s Pohang University of Science and Technology has topped Times Higher Education’s world rankings for the best universities under 50 years old, for the third consecutive year.

The rankings – based on the same 13 indicators which decide Times’ annual World University rankings – saw Asian universities take 4 of the top 5 spots, keeping Switzerland’s École Polytechnique which placed second, company. South Korea also took the third spot (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) while Hong Kong and Singapore took the fourth and fifth spots (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Nanyang Technological University, respectively) making it a superb year for Asian universities.

The continued dominance of Asian universities in these rankings gives an indication of what future editions of the esteemed Times University World rankings may look like. Many students use these rankings – published every October – when deciding where to study; so a shift in these may well see a dramatic change in where students apply to study around the world too.

That is not to say that Western institutions faltered completely this year. The UK and Australia have the most institutions in the top 100 than any other country, with 14 each. Meanwhile in contrast to their dominance in the World University rankings, the US has just 8 universities in the rankings, the highest-ranked being the University of California, Irvine (7^th). Overall, 29 countries featured in the rankings.

Additionally, this was India's first time appearing in the Under 50 rankings, while the youngest university in the list is Austria's Medical University of Vienna which was founded just a decade ago.

The 13 performance indicators which the rankings are based on include staff-to-student ratio, citation impact and research income from industry/academic staff.

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Have you got your eye on a university? Take a look at where they placed in the rankings below:

The full Times 100 Under 50 2014 Rankings

2014 rank	Institution	Country/region
1	Pohang University of Science and Technology	South Korea
2	École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	Switzerland
3	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology	South Korea
4	Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong
5	Nanyang Technological University	Singapore
6	Maastricht University	Netherlands
7	University of California, Irvine	US
8	Université Paris-Sud	France
9	Université Pierre et Marie Curie	France
10	Lancaster University	UK
11	University of California, Santa Cruz	US
12	University of Warwick	UK
13	University of Illinois at Chicago	US
13	Pompeu Fabra University	Spain
15	University of Texas at Dallas	US
16	Universität Ulm	Germany
17	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
17	Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7	France
19	University of Calgary	Canada
20	Universität Konstanz	Germany
21	University of Milan-Bicocca	Italy
22	University of Essex	UK
23	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
24	Simon Fraser University	Canada
24	Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences	Sweden
26	Université Montpellier 2	France
27	Sharif University of Technology	Iran
28	University of Newcastle	Australia
29	Brunel University	UK
30	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong
31	Bilkent University	Turkey
31	Queensland University of Technology	Australia
33	University of Wollongong	Australia
34	University of Bath	UK
34	Macquarie University	Australia
36	Medical University of Vienna	Austria
37	University of Southern Denmark	Denmark
37	State University of Campinas	Brazil
39	Umeå University	Sweden
40	National Sun Yat-Sen University	Taiwan
41	Koç University	Turkey
42	Plymouth University	UK
42	National Taiwan University of Science and Technology	Taiwan
44	University of Tsukuba	Japan
44	University of Waikato	New Zealand
46	Linköping University	Sweden
47	University of Technology, Sydney	Australia
48	University of Crete	Greece
49	Universität Bayreuth	Germany
49	University of South Australia	Australia
51	Universität Bielefeld	Germany
52	Heriot-Watt University	UK
53	University of Eastern Finland	Finland
54	Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1	France
55	Aalborg University	Denmark
56	University of Stirling	UK
57	George Mason University	US
58	Autonomous University of Madrid	Spain
59	Deakin University	Australia
60	University of Hertfordshire	UK
60	Murdoch University	Australia
60	Ruhr-Universität Bochum	Germany
63	University of Surrey	UK
64	University of Tromsø	Norway
65	University of Maryland, Baltimore County	US
66	University of Rovira i Virgili	Spain
67	Universität Duisburg-Essen	Germany
67	National University of Ireland, Maynooth	Republic of Ireland
69	Charles Darwin University	Australia
70	Johannes Kepler Universität Linz	Austria
71	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia
71	Loughborough University	UK
73	Florida International University	US
73	University of Guelph	Canada
75	University of Minho	Portugal
76	University of Vigo	Spain
77	Polytechnic University of Valencia	Spain
78	University of Strathclyde	UK
79	Aveiro University	Portugal
80	University of Kent	UK
81	Aston University	UK
82	Curtin University of Technology	Australia
82	Flinders University	Australia
84	Griffith University	Australia
84	Université du Québec à Montréal	Canada
86	Université Paris Dauphine	France
87	Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati	India
87	New University of Lisbon	Portugal
87	University of Western Sydney	Australia
90	Massey University	New Zealand
91	University of Texas at San Antonio	US
92	Dublin City University	Republic of Ireland
92	Isfahan University of Technology	Iran
94	Dublin Institute of Technology	Republic of Ireland
95	Polytechnic University of Catalonia	Spain
96	Concordia University	Canada
96	National Yang-Ming University	Taiwan
98	Tampere University of Technology	Finland
99	Asia University, Taiwan	Taiwan
100	La Trobe University	Australia
100	University of Rome III	Italy

East Asia producing best “young” universities: Times 100 Under 50 Rankings 2014

Paul Ellett

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