QS Top Universities has revealed its list of the top 50 youngest universities around the world. Moreover, it looks like Asia has dominated the charts and may be overtaking the U.S. and Europe in terms of higher education.
Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore nabbed the top spot in the list. It is followed by The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) in second and third place, respectively.
Hong Kong universities such as the City University of Hong Kong and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University are at the fourth and fifth spots, respectively. Another South Korean school completes the top five: Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH).
Europe takes the remaining spots in the top 10. In seventh place is Maastricht University, which is based in the Netherlands. Australia comes next with the University of Technology Sydney in eighth place. The Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and University of Antwerp in Belgium are in the ninth and tenth places, respectively.
Other countries in Asia such as Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Kazakhstan and Qatar were able to place in the top 50 youngest universities list. European countries such as Finland, Sweden, Germany and France, among others, were also able to find a spot in the list.
Half of the schools in the top 10 are science and technology institutes. According to The Guardian, Ben Sowter, the head of research at QS, finds this significant.
"This trend suggests that young universities with the resources and willingness to focus on creating and maintaining strong Stem-based research programs stand the best chance of disrupting any established global elite," he said.
QS used the same methodology that it used in the QS World Rankings. The performance of each school is judged through academic reputation, employer reputation, student-faculty ratio, citations per faculty as well as international faculty ratio.
