“WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKING 2016” RELEASED BY BRITISH MAGAZINE TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION: SCUOLA NORMALE AND SANT’ANNA SCHOOL SHARE ITALIAN PODIUM TOP STEPS AND RANKED AMONG TOP 200 UNIVERSITIES WORLDWIDE
The British magazine “Times Higher Education” has just released the World University Ranking 2016. 980 universities were rated in the world (800 in 2015) from 79 countries. In Italy, 39 institutions were ranked in 2016 (34 in 2015); Scuola Normale and Sant’Anna School ranked first and second respectively and have confirmed their leading positions. The “Times Higher Education” also ranked Scuola Normale and Sant’Anna School in the top 100 European universities and in global top 200.
The world universities ranking confirm UK and US universities among the world’s best - Oxford University, California Institute of Technology and Stanford ranked first, second and third respectively, meanwhile Switzerland’s university (ETH Zurich) ranked ninth and features again in the top 10.
UK and US institutions have performed very well also in 2016 featuring in the top 10 with the only exception of the Swiss university. The other Italian universities failed to make the world’s top 200; Bologna University ranked 201 and a few other institutions, Politecnico di Milano and University of Trento are within the top 250 in the world; the Libera Università di Bolzano and Roma “La Sapienza” remain within the top 250.
The THE ranking achieved higher reliability in the past years, producing high-end rankings which are used by governments and students around the world. In fact, the requirements to be included in the “Times Higher Education” evaluation are very stringent. In particular, the scholarly output requirement is 200 papers over the past five years and a total number of 1000 papers authored and indexed in Scopus database. For the first time, for the 2016 ranking, more than 500.000 publications, 11.9 million journal articles and 56 million citations were analyzed.
The reliability of the Times Higher Education "World University Ranking 2016" which “subjected its methodological description, its data capture and handling process and its rankings calculations to independent audit” also lies on university systems internationally comparable data, indicators and analysis. The data on the financial contribution received - to take another example - were compared to the purchasing power of the country. This method, verified and successfully replicated to each edition, offers the possibility to make comparisons that, over the years, identify trends and draw future scenarios for individual universities and for relevant national context.
As regards Italy, data confirmed Scuola Normale and Sant’Anna School’s leading role; in fact, Sant’Anna School confirms last year’s top performance (it ranked tenth among the first top 10 universities in the world under fifty years old) – actually, in 2017, only 30 years will have passed since its foundation.
"Along with the Scuola Normale - said Pierdomenico Perata, Sant'Anna’s rector – we maintain our positions as top-ranked universities in Italy, and the number of universities surveyed increased over ten percent compared to last year, confirming us in the top 200 worldwide. Italy is the European country with the lowest rates of expenditure on research and yet our education and research systems have proven to be good competitors, and, if you consider the stringent requirements for admission, the good news is it is already increased the number of universities evaluated in our country. But it is equally clear that a turnaround in research funding should be achieved, strictly on the basis of merit, otherwise Italy will be unable to prevent the decline of university education and scientific research. That will condemn our country to future far from rosy, especially the younger generation”.
"Today the Sant'Anna School - continues Perata - gets a substantial portion of its funding from non-governmental sources, the only possible strategy to maintain international competitiveness. Research and technology transfer, with the 45 active spin-off companies and a growing number of patents, are our strengths. The THE ranking - continues Pierdomenico Perata - confirms that our investment choice was fruitful, and, just like the Scuola Normale, our goal was to be recognized as an academic excellence; in some fields, which are our greatest strengths, such as bio-robotics photonics, life sciences, but also social sciences and peace-keeping programs in addition to macroeconomics and management we have achieved very good results – we are a relatively small institution with some brilliant results that benefit the entire country”.
"These results - underline jointly Vincenzo Barone and Pierdomenico Perata - confirm the great quality of teaching and research that every day the Scuola Normale Superiore and the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies make available to their students. Finally, the fact that Sant'Anna School is located within walking distance from Scuola Normale, and they both provide identical 'curriculum' paths, i.e. undergraduate and graduate programs but in different fields, is specificity we want to promote in the near future, to give Tuscany and Italy a research centre that will be even more attractive to international students ".
