The Higher Education System Strength Ranking 2016 by global higher education analyst QS Quacquarelli Symonds was recently released. This shows the best conditions for higher education institutions worldwide. Our university system in Germany takes a fantastic third place!
What exactly is the QS ranking?
The QS ranking assesses the strengths and weaknesses of country-specific higher education systems. The aim is to identify those factors that can improve a country's higher education system. The ranking is therefore a great help for government departments that are responsible for this task.
These are the top 10 higher education systems worldwide
In the QS ranking, 50 countries from six continents are evaluated according to their respective university systems. These are the first ten places:
- 1st place: USA
- 2nd place: Great Britain
- 3rd place: Germany
- 4th place: Australia
- 5th place: Canada
- 6th place: France
- 7th place: Netherlands
- 8th place: China
- 9th place: South Korea
- 10th place: Japan
While the United States of America leads this year's ranking and Germany takes a great third place, there are three Asian nations in the top 10 (China, South Korea, Japan). Only one Latin American country makes it into the top 20, Argentina in 18th place. Africa is also represented in the top 30 by only one country, South Africa in 30th place. Europe is the most listed continent with 22 countries.
What criteria are used to evaluate higher education systems?
The QS ranking is determined based on four equivalent criteria:
System Strength: Measures the ranking performance of a country's institutions
Access: Measures the likelihood of a talented person getting a place at a prestigious university in their home country, based on the number of places available at said universities and population size
Flagship: Measures the global performance of a country's renowned institution
Economy: Measures the quality of a country's economic environment for its higher education institutions and whether economic success is reflected in the performance of the higher education system
With Germany in the top 3, we can be happy about our great university system!
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