Umeå University ranked 39th among world’s best young universities
NEWS
Umeå University has been ranked #39 by the Times Higher Education 2014 ranking of the top 100 universities under 50 years old. The table "provides a glimpse into the future, showcasing not those institutions with centuries of history, but the rising stars which show great potential."
"It is gratifying that we have a strong standing in a Nordic context," says Lena Gustafsson, Vice-Chancellor of Umeå University. "Meanwhile, it is only to note that the competition is fierce, especially from Asian universities."
The highly respected publication has annually published a world rankling list of universities since 2004. In 2012, they introduced a new list of the world’s best 100 universities under the age of 50 years: Times Higher Education 100 Under 50.
"The young universities celebrated in the 100 Under 50 are bullish: they have no fear of the future or of older rivals," says Phil Baty, editor of Times Higher Education rankings. "While they may not have had centuries to accumulate wealth and cannot draw on generations of alumni and rich traditions of scholarship to drive their reputations, they are free from the burdens of history: free to be more agile, lean, flexible and risk-taking, giving them an advantage in a rapidly changing global marketplace; free to offer innovative teaching and focus their research on niche, high-impact areas.”
The list uses the same 13 performance indicators as the THE World University Rankings, but with a reduced weighting for subjective indicators of academic reputation. This year’s ranking only includes institutions founded in 1964 or later.
There are two other Swedish universities that were included in THE 100 under 50 list: The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) was ranked 24th and Linköping University was ranked 46th. Umeå University has a close collaboration with SLU, and an alliance with Linköping University and the University of Tromso in Norway, which was ranked 64th. A total of nine universities in the Nordic countries made the top 100 list.
Last year, Umeå University was listed at #29 by Times Higher Education100 Under 50.
