Oxford University – The world’s number one ranked university

A ranking of practically anything, from top universities to let’s say the all-time greatest love songs, is invariably the subject of debate, disagreement and even controversy. Many a ranking is quite subjective, strongly reflecting the personal preferences or biases of the individual or organization coming out with it. One must however not disagree that some rankings are more credible than others, with their wider acceptance being based as much on the credibility and transparency of the organization putting forward the ranking, as on the methodology adopted and the empirical and measurable criteria used, even if some would still disagree with the selection of the criteria itself.

The recently released Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020 must be taken in this light. It covers almost 1,400 universities from 92 countries, and is probably the largest and most diverse university rankings ever. It has been issued by the Times Higher Education, originally a part of the iconic Times newspaper of London. THE describes itself as “a company behind the world’s most influential university ranking, and with almost five decades of experience as a source of analysis and insight on higher education, we have unparalleled expertise on the trends underpinning university performance globally. Our data and benchmarking tools are used by many of the world’s most prestigious universities to help them achieve their strategic goals.”

The Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2020 is “based on 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.” According to the THE ranking, the top 25 universities in the world are as below.

Source:  https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2020/world-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/stats

So the number one ranked university in the world is Oxford University, and what is remarkable is that it has held this top position for 4 consecutive years! But in a sense this is perhaps not surprising, as Oxford University is one of the oldest universities in the world (one source lists it as the second oldest in the world), with “…teaching existed … in some form…” as early as 1096, and not later than 1167. Oxford University alumni include among other luminaries, 27 Prime Ministers, 50 Nobel Prize winners and even 12 saints

But do you know which is THE oldest, still existing and continually operating educational institution in the world? Of course you don’t! Well it is the University of Karueein, in Fez, Morocco, founded in 859 AD. – one thousand one hundred and sixty years ago! That says something for education in the Muslim world, doesn’t it?’ Worthwhile to mention here that some regard The University of Bologna, Italy, founded in 1088 to be the oldest, or at least the oldest one in Europe.

University of Karueein, in Fez, Morocco. The world’s oldest continuously operational university

But wait! The University of Karueein, in Fez, Morocco may be the oldest continually operating university in the world, but it is not by far the first ever university in human civilization on this planet. Folks, that credit goes to a university which existed some 2,700 years ago, nowhere else but right here in what is now Pakistan! Yes Sir, Takshashila University was the world’s first university, established in Taxila. I am afraid I don’t when or how Takshashila University closed down. However a University of Engineering and Technology Taxila was established in 1993.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020 is quite an absorbing document to go through, as you delve into the details, throwing up many surprises.  For example, I took a random list of 15 countries, including some major Western countries, some advanced countries in the East and some countries of our own region, to see how many universities in each of these countries makes it to the top universities ranking. The biggest surprise was Iran with 40 universities included in the ranking!

Here’s the list of countries I looked up, alphabetical order:

S.#	COUNTRY		POPULATION (millions)	# OF UNIVERSITIES IN THE RANKING	POPULATION PER RANKED UNIVERSITY
01		AUSTRALIA	25.27	35	722,000
02		BANGLADESH	163.46	01	163,460.000
03		CHINA	1,435.26	81	17,719,259
04		FRANCE	65.17	38	1,715,000
05		GERMANY	83.59	48	1,741,458
06		INDIA	1,369.75	56	24,459821
07		IRAN	83.18	40	2,079,500
08		JAPAN	126.77	110	1,152,455
09		MALAYSIA	32.05	13	2,465,385
10		PAKISTAN	217.63	14	15,545,000
11		RUSSIA	145.90	39	3,741,026
12		SRI LANKA	21.34	02	10,670,000
13		THAILAND	69.67	16	4,354,375
14		UK	67.62	100	676.200
15		USA	329.56	172	1,916,047

Quite informative, isn’t it, the above table? Iran, about whom we unfortunately know so little about, except the disinformation churned out by Western media, has more universities in the Times Higher Education ranking of the world’s top universities than Pakistan, Australia, France and Russia! And remember this ranking is by a Western institution!

Another way to look at it is to look at the last column in the table which compares the population per one ranked university in each of the 15 countries.

Very quickly, some of the largest universities in the world, in terms of enrolment, with this information being derived from other sources and nothing to do with the THE rankings:

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is the world’s largest university by enrollment with about 4 million students. At about 2 million enrolled students each are National University, Bangladesh and Anadolu University, Turkey.  Islamic Azad University, Iran, a private university has about 1,200,000 students, whereas the Allama Iqbal Open University has abour 1,121,000 students.

In closing, my takeaway recommendation: All young people researching into universities to apply to for higher education, do go through the THE ranking website thoroughly. While the overall top 25 ranked universities in the universities are listed above in this article, you can check which are the best universities subject-wise, or even evaluate your preferences on the basis of several other criteria. All the best for making the right choice!