Skip to main content

University Rankings

 

There are a lot of discussions lately on the best route for higher education.

The discussions are centered upon

  • the ranking of universities
  • the financial considerations
  • the paying of full fees for foreign students
  • doing part-time jobs in foreign countries

However, all these issues are actually interlinked and should be discussed bearing in mind all the other issues in the big picture.

The highest ranking universities are in United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada and Swizerland. According to The Times, the ranking in 2010 are:

  1. Harvard University (US)
  2. California Institute of Technology (US)
  3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
  4. Stanford University (US)
  5. Princeton University (US)
  6. University of Cambridge (UK)
  7. University of Oxford (UK)
  8. University of California - Berkeley (US)
  9. Imperial College London (UK)
  10. Yale University (US)
  11. University of California - Los Angeles (US)
  12. University of Chicago (US)
  13. John Hopkins University (US)
  14. Cornell University (US)
  15. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Switzerland)
  16. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor (US)
  17. University of Toronto (Canada)
  18. Columbia University (US)
  19. University of Pennsylvania (US)
  20. Carnegie Mellon University (US)

However, these universities charge tuition fees of about $40,000 (USD) per year. A  four year course in these universities will generally cost a minimum of about $300,000 (USD) including cost of living, depending on the location.

Not many of us can afford this amount of money for our education. Due to financial constraints, most students will not be able to make it unless they are given a scholarship from the universities or any other agencies.

Due to the rising costs of education, students will have consider other good universities. For example, they may want to consider studying for a short while in emerging economies like Malaysia. That way, they can reduce the cost to a large degree. Or they could consider mastering their English by studying in an institution in a developing country first.