US is Uncontested Global Academic Power in 2021 THE University Ranking

It is a constantly changing ranking order but this is how they stand today and the reasons for that as far as the 2021 Times Higher Education (THE)‘s ranking exercise is concerned. Majority of the toughest universities retained their position, baring a few shifts in position up or down. That may not be where the big news might be but in the question of which countries are represented in the first twenty five, for instance. The list would show the US which has a total of 16 out of the 25.

It is followed by the UK which has four, then China which has two, Switzerland and Canada which have one each and Singapore which also has one. The totality leaves the US as the uncontested world intellectual power where the 2^nd to the 5^th and 7^th to the 10^th toughest universities are located. That also means that eight out of the toughest ten of the top twenty five universities are American universities, a tremendous amount of power.

Australia is not in the top 25 but it is so close, with the University of Melbourne at 31^st position, one notch higher than last year. Still in Australia is the dramatic change of position between the University of Sydney and the Australian National University, (ANU). Sydney which was 60^th last year moved up into 51^st this year while ANU moved from 50^th last year to 59^th. The most dramatic from Australia must be the movement of Monash University from the 75^th position in 2020 ranking to 64^th position in 2021. That’s remarkable.

Two universities in Canada are also remarkable. While the University of British Columbia retains its 34^th position in both 2020 and 2021, McGill University is moving from 42^nd position in 2020 to 40^th position in 2021.

From Africa comes three universities but from the 155^th position taken by the University of Cape Town, down from 136^th in 2021; the University of Witwatersrand pushed into the 201-250 category from its 194^th position in 2020 and then the University of Stellenbosch  which retained its position in the 251 – 300 as in 2020. These are the front rank universities from the continent.

And so on and so forth.

The ranking does not show the best universities as there is nothing like best unities. What they show are the most active universities in certain areas of emphasis, especially emphasis by employers of labour.

The 2022 ranking exercise might have more precise details of the impact of COVID-19 on the universities across the world and the innovations that might have come on board in coping with the impacts. That process is still too fluid at the moment.