UK home to most leading ‘young’ universities in the world

The UK is home to the most leading ‘young’ universities in the world, according to a new league table by Times Higher Education (THE).

27 British universities feature in its latest league table, which ranks the top 200 universities from around the world that are less than fifty years old.

The University of Dundee, which was founded in 1967, is the British university which ranks most highly, taking 16th place. The University of Sterling, the University of Plymouth, and the University of Portsmouth also feature in the top 100, taking 46th, 65th, and 98th places, respectively.

Founded in 1965, the University of Warwick has been exempt from the league table for the past two years. However, it had previously performed consistently well, taking 12th place in 2014, and 9th place in 2015.

Warwick was however ranked the 8th best ‘Golden Age’ university in the world, referring institutions founded between 1945 and 1966.

Australia also features frequently on the league table, with 23 institutions ranked, as well as France which has 16. However, Swiss institution Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne took 1st place for the third year in a row.

Phil Baty, the editor of the ranking, commented: “The UK is the leading country in this list of the world’s best young universities for the second year in a row, claiming 27 of the top 200 places.

“While several institutions dropped out of the list last year after reaching their 51st birthday, an impressive 10 new institutions make their debut in the list this year, thanks to the expansion of the table to include 200 universities, up from 150 last year.”

He added: “A key strength for the UK in this ranking is that it has representatives that were founded in every decade between the 1960s and 2000s, suggesting that the country has a promising future in the Under 50 list in the years to come.

“Two UK universities – London Metropolitan University and University of the West of Scotland – make the new “millennial” table of the best universities founded post 2000.”