An assessment carried out by AllAboutUni.com found that Dutch universities do very well in the World’s Top-500 universities. AllAboutUni.com is an independent, global and interactive website where visitors can obtain information about universities (global rankings, student reviews, university news and campus pictures).

The analysis is based on a ranking of the World’s Top-500 Universities produced by the Institute of Higher Education at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Several indicators of academic or research performance are used to establish the ranking, these include staff winning Nobel Prizes, highly cited researchers and articles indexed in major citation indices.

There are 12 Dutch universities in the World’s Top-500 universities (2008): University of Utrecht (ranked 47th), University of Leiden (76th), Free University of Amsterdam (101-151), Amsterdam University (101-151), University of Groningen (101-151), Delft University of Technology (152-200), Erasmus University (152-200), Radboud University Nijmegen (152-200), University of Wageningen (152-200), University of Maastricht (303-401), Twente University (303-401) and Eindhoven University of Technology (402-503).

Comparison with the World’s Top-500 Overall,

the World’s Top-500 universities are mainly located in Europe (n=210; 40%), the Americas (n=190; 40%) and the Asian/Pacific region (n=100; 20%). The Netherlands, with 12 universities, represents 2% of the total universities in the World’s Top-500 universities. If one adjusts for population size (i.e. one calculates the number of universities in the Top-500 per 1 million inhabitants in the country), the Netherlands performs very well compared to other industrialised countries. The countries with the highest number of universities per million inhabitants are the smaller countries in Western Europe (Sweden (1.2 universities in the World’s Top-500 Universities per 1 million inhabitants), Finland (1.2), Switzerland (1.0), Austria (0.9), Norway (0.8)) and (Israel) (0.8). The Netherlands comes into the next group of countries with 0.7 universities per million inhabitants (this group includes Denmark, Australia, Hong Kong and the UK). The number of US universities per million inhabitants is 0.5.

Comparison with the World’s Top-100universities

Universities in the US clearly dominate the World’s Top-100 universities, with 58 universities. There are 23 European universities, of which two are Dutch (the Universities of Utrecht and Leiden).

Age

The median age of the 12 Dutch universities is 112 years, ranging from 32 years (University of Maastricht) to 433 (University of Leiden). Many of the Dutch universities are young, with six of the 12 universities aged less than 100 years.

Endowments

Endowments can play an important role in the operating budget of universities, as demonstrated by the AllAboutUni.com assessment of the world’s Top-25 universities. Only one of the 12 Dutch universities reported an endowment on Wikipedia [accessed 22 November 2008] and this was the Delft University of Technology (€460 million in 2007). This is a relatively small amount in comparison to the World’s Top-25 universities whose median endowment is $5.9 billion.

Conclusions

The overall performance of Dutch universities compared to the rest of the world is very good. Despite not being represented in the World’s Top-25 universities, they have a very good overall performance with a high number of universities per million inhabitants in the World´s Top-500. Another positive point is that many of the Dutch universities are young and have progressed to the World’s Top-500 universities over a relatively short time period. The strong overall performance of Dutch universities is probably associated with factors like the good management practices, the high level of public (and private) funding available to Dutch universities and the long academic tradition that exists in the Netherlands.

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is the world’s top 20 technological university!

 

According to the Times Higher Education Supplement’s World University Rankings 2007, NTU is ranked 69 in the world.

 

The university has 2 campuses in Singapore: NTU at one-north campus and the Yunnan Garden campus. NTU at one-north campus is located next to Biopolis, the Singapore biomedical research hub. NTU has strong reputation overseas, linkages with world famous universities such as University of Washington, Stanford University, MIT, Cambridge, to name a few.

 

It offers undergraduate and graduate courses in Accountancy, Business, Communication Studies, Engineering, Science and Arts.

 

The university is recognized globally for its excellence in science and engineering. The College of Engineering is one of the world largest engineering colleges, with 6 engineering schools offering a variety of programs and specializations to meet the needs of many students.

 

It is also home to the National Institute of Education (NIE), which is the only teacher training institute in Singapore. NIE provides educational services to countries such as Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.

 

The College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences is the first Singapore professional art school offering courses in art, design and media.

 

Nanyang Business School (NBS) is one of the only business schools in Singapore and the third in Asia to achieve both EQUIS and AACSB accreditations.

 

NBS offers one of the world top 100 MBA programs. According to the Financial Times survey (published in Jan 2007), its MBA program is ranked Number 1 in Singapore and Number 2 in Asia.

 Please visit the relevant guides for Latest University Rankings  and World University Ranking .

University Founders

President Lincoln signed the Morrill Land Grant Act in 1862. Stating the federal government of the United States would grant land to any state prepared use any proceeds from the sale of that land to be used for maintaining a teaching establishment for the ‘mechanic arts’ and agriculture. Three years later decided to take steps to create a teaching college in the state of Indiana. Today, this college, now Purdue University, is one of the biggest university systems throughout the US. Ranked high amongst all Americas top institutions. Founded using a hundred acres of donated land, fifty thousand dollars from the county of Tippecanoe, and a hundred and fifty dollars generously donate by a gentleman called John Purdue. Hence, Perdue University!

Campus

Today, the university has six campuses and offers majors in many diverse areas. More than two hundred undergraduate and graduate programs are available. Famous for it’s College of Engineering, which offers some of the best aviation and aerospace programs in the world. Boasting a world class flight school and are forerunners in aerospace development and research. Their aeronautics graduates are ranked as top new recruits within the defence industry. They were the first to offer a bachelors degree in aviation, and the first university to have it’s own airport. 

Research and Discovery

Purdue Research Park and the Discovery Park encompass the university grounds. The site stretches out for miles, covering over seven hundred acres, just a few miles north of Purdue University’s west campus. Around a hundred and fifty biological, nanotech, medical companies, and laboratories make this the biggest technology park in the state of Indiana. More than fifty buildings make up the park today. Founded over forty years ago, it has become one of the biggest university affiliated technology parks, throughout the American states.



Moniker and Mascots

The official nickname for the Perdue University Athletes is the ‘Boilermakers’. Although the shortened version, ‘Boilers’, it’s often used when referring to any student of Perdue. First used in 1891 by a local reporter, in reference the university’s winning football team. It was fast adopted by the students, and has continued to be used when referring to just about all things related to Perdue. Since nineteen forty, their official mascot, come emblem, has been the ‘Boilermaker Special. A replica locomotive originally adopted to highlight Perdue’s success in the field of engineering. Especially with regards to railway technology. ‘Perdue Pete’ is an unofficial mascot, infamous both on and off the university campus. The latest addition to the Purdue University mascot family is Rowdy. A three metre high blow up boy!



Achievements

During the mid twentieth century, the university’s aviation program began to incorporate advanced spaceflight technology. Today, these programs have earned Purdue the nickname ‘Cradle of Astronauts’. More than twenty NASA astronauts have come from Perdue. Including Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moons surface, and Eugene Cernan, the last man. Usually, a third of any NASA crew, selected for a manned mission, will be a graduate of Purdue. Many famous people have been associated with the university. The faculty has even won the Noble Prize.