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January 29, 2021
Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings announces Most International Universities in the World Today.
Photo: The west facade of ETH Zürich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich) main building, overlooking the city, was designed by German architect Gottfried Semper and completed in 1864. Image credit: Dystopos.
London, January 28, 2021 — Times Higher Education (THE) World’s Most International Universities 2021, published today, reveals which universities have the essential global links, based on their share of international students, staff, and publications, as well as their international reputations. According to THE, its analysis provides more detail on this last metric, showing which national systems have the most substantial global reputations and how this has changed over the past two years. According to THE, prestige is a measure that has become increasingly important for universities.
Prospective students looking to study in the most international environments should apply to universities in Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore, or the UK.
Universities, by their nature, are global institutions. Typically, they are home to communities of students and scholars from all over the world, and they tackle some of the globe’s most pressing problems through research.
This table, compiled using the international student score, global staff score, international co-authorship score, and international reputation metrics shows that the above four countries are home to some of the world’s most international universities.
These institutions all have a high proportion of international students and staff, collaborate on research with scholars from across the world, and have a strong global reputation to match.
Research suggests that students’ diverse communities improve the teaching and learning experience, while students’ opportunities to spend time abroad better prepare them to become global citizens.
• Top five most international universities in the world
1. The University of Hong Kong
The University of Hong Kong has embarked on a mission to become “Asia’s global university,” which includes the goal of giving all its undergraduates two opportunities to study outside Hong Kong during their degree by 2022.
Overall, this Hong Kong university has more than 30,000 students, of which more than 35 percent are international.
Teaching at the institution is in English, and education has an international focus to prepare students to become global citizens who could be successful anywhere in the world.
2. ETH Zurich
It is no surprise that Switzerland is home to some of the most international universities globally, given its situation in the heart of Europe, surrounded by France, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Liechtenstein.
ETH Zurich is located in Switzerland’s largest city, Zurich, remarkably safe (although expensive). The primary spoken language is Swiss German, but the university also offers courses in English.
The institution has more than 22,000 students from over 120 countries and is the top university in continental Europe.
The university focuses on teaching and research in STEM subjects. Students and teachers connected to the institution have received 21 Nobel Prizes. One of the most famous alumni is Albert Einstein.
3. The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Students from more than 50 countries study at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The university has exchange partnerships with more than 282 institutions in 36 countries and regions. Some 6,000 students study abroad or take part in a learning abroad program or internship.
4. University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is not only the top university in the world, but it also happens to be one of the most international.
Over a third of students at the University of Oxford are international students from 160 countries and territories. International students have been attending the University of Oxford for hundreds of years, with the first international student arriving way back in 1190.
Almost half of the university staff are also international, and the institution has links with many other institutions worldwide.
Prospective international students can listen to the university’s International Students podcast, which talks you through Oxford’s academic and social aspects.
5. Imperial College London
Imperial College London focuses on teaching and learning around science, engineering, medicine, and business.
More than 60 percent of students are international, with undergraduates coming from over 125 countries.
Clubs and support services with an international focus at Imperial College include International Medical Careers and the Indian National Student Association.
• Most international universities in the world 2021
- University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- ETH Zurich, Switzerland
- Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- University of Oxford, United Kingdom
- Imperial College London, United Kingdom
- National University of Singapore, Singapore
- University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Trinity College Dublin, Republic of Ireland
- Nanyang Technological University Singapore, Singapore
- UCL, United Kingdom
- University of Vienna, Austria
- Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
- King’s College London, United Kingdom
- University of Auckland, New Zealand
- Australian National University, Australia
- London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom
- University of British Columbia, Canada
- University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- University of Zurich, Switzerland
- University of Warwick, United Kingdom
- UNSW Sydney, Australia
- McGill University, Canada
- University of Manchester, United Kingdom
- University of Melbourne, Australia
- Durham University, United Kingdom
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States
- The University of Queensland, Australia
- University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
- University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- University of Toronto, Canada
- Monash University, Australia
- University of Sydney, Australia
- École Polytechnique, France
- University of Groningen, Netherlands
- Aalto University, Finland
- Leiden University, Netherlands
- California Institute of Technology, United States
- McMaster University, Canada
- University of Cape Town, South Africa
- Lund Universit, Sweden
- University of Oslo, Norway
- Stanford University, United States
- Harvard University, United States
- Princeton University, United States
- Aarhus University, Denmark
- Utrecht University, Netherlands
- Carnegie Mellon University, United States
- Columbia University, United States
- KU Leuven, Belgium
- Georgia Institute of Technology, United States
- Uppsala University, Sweden
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Stockholm University, Sweden
- University of Malaya, Malaysia
- Paris Sciences et Lettres, Paris, France
- Free University of Berlin, Germany
- University of California, Berkeley, United States
- Johns Hopkins University, United States
- Cornell University, United States
- The University of Chicago, United States
- Technical University of Munich, Germany
- Purdue University West Lafayette, United States
- Rice University, United States
- Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
- Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Israel
- Yale University, United States
- University of California, Irvine, United States
- New York University, United States
- University of California, Santa Barbara, United States
- Sorbonne University, France
- Heidelberg University, Germany
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
- Boston University, United States
- University of California, Davis United States
- University of California, Los Angeles, United States
- LMU Munich, Germany
- Ghent University, Belgium
- University of Tübingen, Germany
- Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic
- University of Paris, France
- University of Pennsylvania, United States
- The University of California, San Diego, United States
- University of Helsinki, Finland
- Duke University, United States
- University of Southern California, United States
- University of Massachusetts, United States
- University of Bonn, Germany
- Michigan State University, United States
- Brown University, United States
- RWTH Aachen University, Germany
- University of Barcelona, Spain
- Northwestern University, United States
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
- Arizona State University (Tempe), United States
- Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russian Federation
- North Carolina State University, United States
- Tel Aviv University, Israel
- Ohio State University (Main campus), United States
- Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), South Korea
- University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, United States
- Emory University, United States
- University of Washington, United States
- University of Bologna, Italy
- The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States
- Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, United States
- Texas A&M University, United States
- Washington University in St Louis, United States
- Tomsk State University, Russian Federation
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, United States
- University of Notre Dame, United States
- Peking University, China
- Indiana University, United States
- Zhejiang University, China
- University of Colorado Boulder, United States
- Yonsei University (Seoul campus), South Korea
- Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
- National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Russian Federation
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States
- Penn State (Main campus), United States
- Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), Russian Federation
- Tongji University, China
- University of Warsaw, Poland
- East China Normal University, China
- University of Virginia (Main campus), United States
- Korea University, South Korea
- University of Maryland, College Park, United States
- University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus, United States
- Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
- University of Georgia, United States
- Nanjing University, China
- The University of Tokyo, Japan
- University of Arizona, United States
- Tsinghua University, China
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
- University of Minnesota, United States
- University of Florida, United States
- The University of Texas at Austin, United States
- Waseda University, Japan
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States
- Tohoku University, Japan
- Vanderbilt University, United States
- Kyoto University, Japan
- Fudan University, China
- National Taiwan University (NTU), Taiwan
- Beijing Normal University, China
- Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
- Dartmouth College, United States
- Seoul National University, South Korea
- University of Tsukuba, Japan
- Hokkaido University, Japan
- Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea
- HSE University, Russian Federation
- Osaka University, Japan
- Kyushu University, Japan
- University of São Paulo, Brazil
- Xi’an Jiaotong University, China
- Saint Petersburg State University, Russian Federation
- Harbin Institute of Technology, China
- Novosibirsk State University, Russian Federation
- National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
- Nagoya University, Japan
- National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
- Wuhan University, China
- Sun Yat-sen University, China
- National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Taiwan
- Tianjin University, China
- Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea
- University of Campinas, Brazil
- Keio University, Japan
- University of Science and Technology of China, China
- Indian Institute of Science, India
The data in Times Higher Education’s ranking of The World’s Most International Universities 2021 is mainly from the “international outlook” pillar of THE World University Rankings 2021. It considers a university’s proportions of international students, international staff, and journal publications with at least one international co-author. Each of these elements is given equal weighting in calculating the score for this pillar.
• International Reputation
The table adds a fourth component, which makes up 25 percent of the total score: a university’s international reputation. It is a measure of the proportion of votes from outside the home country that the institution achieved in THE’s annual invitation-only Academic Reputation Survey, which asks leading scholars to name the world’s best universities for teaching and research in their field.
Only institutions that received at least 100 votes in the survey were eligible for inclusion.
Metrics and weightings:
25 percent: the proportion of international staff
25 percent: the proportion of international students
25 percent: international co-authorship
25 percent: an international reputation
Source: Times Higher Education
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Edited & Posted by the Editor | 2:54 PM | Link to this Post