
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 (7th). 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 |