Each year, QS Quacquarelli Symonds, global higher education think tank, release a ranking of the world’s best universities under 50 years of age. It is designed to emphasise the potential and excellence of universities without decades or centuries of established reputation, and to identify which of them might disrupt, or indeed have already disrupted, the global elite.
This year’s ranking indicates that Asia and Australia are home to the world’s strongest recently-formed institutions. Portugal’s Universidade Nova de Lisboa rises this year from 45th to 41st.
Other key findings from this year’s ranking include:
• Nanyang Technological University retains the number-one position;
• Asian institutions take all of the top six places, while six of the top-ten places are taken by universities with a heavy STEM focus;
• Australia is the most-featured nation on the ranking, with its young universities taking ten of the fifty available places;
• Its highest-ranked university is the University of Technology, Sydney, which has risen six places to 8th in this year’s ranking, off the back of its rise into the top 200 in the recently-published QS World University Rankings 2016/17;
• Sixteen of the fifty available places go to Asian institutions;
• Europe is the most-featured continent, with eighteen universities: Its highest-ranked university is Maastricht University (7th).
QS’s Head of Research, Ben Sowter, said: “The rankings suggest that young universities focussed on strong STEM-based research programs stand the best chance of disrupting any established global elite.”
The full QS Top 50 Under 50 Rankings can be found here.