In an article forecasting the collapse of California’s public university and college system, the Economist notes
The best public higher education in the world is to be found at the University of California (UC). This claim is backed up by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, which provides an authoritative ranking of research universities. The UC’s campus at Berkeley ranks third behind two private universities, Harvard and Stanford. Several of the other ten UC sites, such as Los Angeles and San Diego, are not far behind. Californians are justifiably proud.
Perhaps you asked yourself, Shanghai Jiao Tong’s rankings? Yes. In their method,
We rank universities by several indicators of academic or research performance, including alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, highly cited researchers, articles published in Nature and Science, articles indexed in major citation indices, and the per capita academic performance of an institution.
UC Davis, in case you’re curious about that Athens of the Central Valley, rates 48th in the world by this method. Of course Davisites prefer the Washington Monthly method, which puts UC Davis at number 8 nationwide (just ahead of Stanford), but Shanghai Jiao Tong still puts UC Davis higher than US News and some other methods.
17 comments
August 16, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Marie
These are all undergraduate rankings, right? I’d like to see individual graduate programs, which I’m thinking would be much less variation between methodologies.
August 16, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Ben Alpers
OU is tied for 303rd in the world, baby! That’s only about 300 slots separating our academic ranking from our place in the preseason football polls! Boomer Sooner!
(I’d never heard of that Washington Monthly ranking, but I’m a little suspicious of a system that makes Texas A&M the nation’s premiere university. I’d rank it about third…in the state of Texas.)
August 16, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Sandie
Get a Nobel or Pulitzer Prize, Ben, and then maybe we’ll go up to 300. Woo hoo!
August 16, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Vance
Where the campus, or the system, stands in a particular ranking is fun to fuss over but not, I think, the main issue — rather, I’d like California to have a good, affordable public education system, including all tiers of higher ed. These days, I wonder whether, with this electorate, we can get consensus on that goal, and whether with this constitutional system, we can do what it takes. I fear there are too many people who are sure that too much of their money is being expropriated and misspent anyway, so more (almost by definition) can’t do anything worth doing.
August 16, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Walt
Marie: The Shanghai Jiao Tong ranking is as far from being an undergraduate ranking as can be imagined.
August 16, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Sandwichman
Go Aggies!
August 16, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Marie
Sorry, I didn’t catch Shanghai Jiao Tong’s subject as “research universities.” So, to my understanding, that specific ranking method is mostly geared to research graduate programs.
August 16, 2009 at 6:55 pm
DOW
You know, if you were ranked 48th in the world in tennis you’d be one damn fine tennis player. (If you were a man you’d be Benjamin Becker of Germany, and if you were a woman you’d be Katarina Srebotnik of Serbia, a notch ahead of the luscious Maria Sharapova.) Davis is one fine campus and developing a promising topspin. (And I speak as a longtime Berkeley resident and interested UC system observer.)
It’s true, though. The fact that these public institutions — the pride and the lifeblood of what can only laughably still be called the Golden State — have maintained their rankings at all is little short of astonishing. Almost heroic. Bully for you guys with your patched white shorts and warped rackets.
(When I climb aboard a metaphor I like to ride it to exhaustion.)
August 16, 2009 at 7:00 pm
DOW
Oops. Don’t want to raise any nationalistic hackles. Srebotnik is from Slovenia.
August 16, 2009 at 7:25 pm
DaKooch
You guys still produce the best brew masters!
August 16, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Marie
So, research graduate programs (in the world) and not just the nation (the United States), which is different from other ranking systems (like the ones the professor mentioned). I hope bully is a good thing?
August 16, 2009 at 7:36 pm
TF Smith
With four UC campuses in the Top 10, I’m not sure I see quite the “crisis” others may…
Of course, I was born and raised here, and have lived through a variety of crises, dating back to the 1970s…
The “end of the Golden State” trope is a theme that never gets old for various and sundry Easterners and Europeans; meanwhile, it seems Asians with disposable income can’t get enough of Cali…what do they know that the Economist does not?
August 16, 2009 at 10:34 pm
DOW
If you’ve lived here since the ’70s — I’ve been here since the ’60s — you can feel the difference and see it. I agree that the eschaton trope is overworked, not to mention the Golden State thing, but clearly California at this moment is in deep economic doo-doo. And the political climate is far from promising for a resolution. Prop. 13 was a disaster that keeps on giving. Nevertheless, I too have confidence that this nation-state will weather the current spate of bad times. I remember driving across the state line on I-80 in 1961 and immediately seeing the brand new pavement widen and the forest and snowy mountains glisten and everything in front of me — the quaint mountain towns, leafy Sacramento, the fecund Valley, the oasis called the Nut Tree, the spires of the campanile and the Claremont nestled against the green hills behind the best public university in the country, and sun-splashed Oakland, and the graceful bridge curving across blue San Francisco Bay, and the Oz-like City (the Platonic ideal), and the gossamer red towers of the Golden Gate Bridge capped with fog rolling in off the invisible Farallones — and I knew I’d entered a promised land. Yeah, there are cracks in the ormolu today. But we’ll manage to fix ‘em. Who’d want to live anywhere else?
And for god’s sake, stop calling it Cali.
August 16, 2009 at 10:44 pm
serofriend
a notch ahead of the luscious Maria Sharapova
DOW: Lusciousness, I’m assuming, is a central component of athleticism.
I speak as a longtime Berkeley resident and interested UC system observer
A relative of mine graduated from Cal and has lived in Berkeley for over 50 years. She’s involved in countless activities and events over there. I’m sure she’s heard of a former editor who distinguishes between academic and scientific articles. There’s even a better chance if you’re an Easterner or European who uses the “end of the Gold State” trope, moved to the States for an undergraduate education, and developed a passion for African-American civil rights.
I’m proud to have been educated entirely within the UC System. The economy and employment opportunities may be in crisis, but not necessarily the quality of education nor the Golden State itself.
August 16, 2009 at 11:17 pm
DOW
Luscious : Sharapova :: ag school : Davis. Obviously there are other surpassing qualities, but it’s the brand. As a quick Google will confirm. You don’t win Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, though, on looks.
August 16, 2009 at 11:36 pm
serofriend
In both literal and figurative terms, I see your point.
August 19, 2009 at 9:33 am
Ben Alpers
Did you catch this Inside Higher Ed story on the gaming of US News rankings by colleges and universities?
The overall story is hardly news, but the juicy tidbit is (at least to me): it’s been revealed that the form filled out
byfor the University of Wisconsin’s Provost gave every other school in the country, with the exception of the New School, the second lowest possible rating, “Adequate.” Twenty-five percent of the US News ratings are determined by these peer-review surveys.