USA named "top nation for higher education"

Posted on 02 Aug 2014 Views ( 1105 )

For the third consecutive year, the United States of America has been ranked "top nation for higher education” by the U21 Ranking of National Higher Education Systems.

Sweden kept its second place, while Denmark and Canada climbed to share third from their respective fourth and fifth place positions in 2013. Finland has secured fifth position.

Switzerland drowned from third to sixth while the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Australia and Singapore made their existence respectively thereafter.

This year, U21 has also initiated a second list of GDP adjusted rankings which compares 50 national systems at similar economic stages of development.

These rankings based on 24 measurements in four areas: output, connectivity, environment, and resources.

Also the rankings imprints its remarkable changes compare to the actual rankings, in which Sweden tops the list followed by Denmark and Finland.

The modified rankings, which are intended to assess the quality of teaching and research as well as the transfer of ideas between institution and industry revealed a surprising fact as even nations those are having lower income possess significant improvements in the individual “Connectivity” rankings. Universitas 21 describes this activity to be most beneficial to economic growth.

Universitas 21 has started these adjusted rankings in order to stabilize the playground for comparison and also as a reply to the criticism that rankings use criteria that are most appropriate for developed countries.”

The other side of the coin is to look at how income levels affect the performance of higher education. Because this is how tertiary education systems best contribute to GDP growth it said.

Universitas 21 believes that their effort results in exploring the issue in a manner more than usual.