18 Nov 2015

Every year, Times Higher Education ranks the world’s universities on how they achieve the core mission of teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

American and British universities dominate the top ten, and the THE rankings editor Phil Baty says this is because they’ve found the perfect balance between teaching and research, the optimum level of integration between research scholars and undergrads.

While no Aussie institutions cracked the top ten, you may recognise a few of the names on the list from their worldwide reputations, or because you watched Legally Blonde once. Or twice. Or 100 times.

10. University of Chicago

The first of 6 American schools in this list, the University of Chicago is one of the leading research institutions in the US. They’re renowned for their economics, business, law and medicine programs, but also for their traditional scavenger hunt that both staff and students participate in and that actually sounds really fun. All universities should do that, shouldn’t they?

9. ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

The 5th best university in the world for engineering, science and technology. Heard of Albert Einstein? He went here and later went on to win a Nobel Prize. In fact, 21 students or staff of ETH Zurich have been awarded Nobel Peace Prizes. There must be something in the water.

8. Imperial College London

Students of the Imperial College London are amongst the top ten most valued graduates in the world. Almost all notable alumna have their names prefixed with the word “sir,” so if that’s your aspiration, or you’re super into science, engineering, medicine or business, it might be somewhere for you to look into.

7. Princeton University

Princeton is one of the oldest and most prestigious colleges in America. They’ve got 36 academic departments for undergrads to choose from and a generous financial aid program, and Olivia Pope from Scandal went there, so.

6. Harvard University

Despite being one of the most famous institutions on this list, Harvard was bumped out of the number one spot four years ago, and now sits at 6th. Its list of notable alumni is endless and it’s constantly experimenting with new educational models and learning methods.

5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MIT excels in the art, science and business side of innovation, and is one of the USA’s premier technological institutions. The school community has a strong entrepreneurial culture, and Buzz Aldrin went there. Shoot for the stars, people. Or the moon, as the case may be.

4. University of Cambridge

The second oldest university in the English-speaking world, their libraries hold around 15 million books and 91 Nobel laureates have been students, staff or alumni.

3. Stanford University

I’ve been harbouring hard feelings towards Stanford ever since it stole Gabriella from Troy in High School Musical 3, but it’s one of the best universities in the world so I might have to let that go. The two founders of Google are alumni, and graduates have had a hand in starting companies essential to our daily function like YouTube, Netflix and Whatsapp.

2. University of Oxford

If it looks like Hogwarts, that’s because it is. But it’s also one of the most prestigious institutions in the world and it’s been teaching the best of the best for 919 years.

1. California Institute of Technology

Caltech is one of the top schools in the world for science and engineering, and the average starting salary for 2014 graduates was $88,256. That’s pretty impressive.