THE ranking points to Unicamp as the best in Latin America

20, Jul - 2017 | 02 o'clock

Headline

authorship

Manuel Alves Filho

Collaborated: Carlos Orsi

Photos

Antoninho Perri

image editing

Luis Paulo Silva

Campus image

Unicamp is the best University in Latin America, according to a specific ranking for the region published in the early hours of this Thursday (20) by the British publication Times Higher Education (THE). THE is known for evaluating higher education institutions internationally. This is the second edition of Times Higher Education Latin America. In the first, organized in 2016, Unicamp occupied second place, with the University of São Paulo (USP) ahead.

The ranking result was received with satisfaction by rector Marcelo Knobel. “It is always a source of pride for the University to be well positioned in international rankings, as it is recognition of the hard work we do here to have a school of excellence in all areas in which it operates. We now have an extra effort to, despite the serious crisis we are going through, maintain this position on the international stage”, he considered.

A Times Higher Education Latin America evaluated 81 Latin American universities. The analysis was based on the same criteria as THE World University Rankings, but with adjustments to better reflect the characteristics of institutions in the region. In total, 13 performance indicators are analyzed in the teaching, research, knowledge transfer and degree of internationalization segments.

The general criteria are the same – teaching, research, citations, international perspective and income from industry – but the weights are different. For example, in the global ranking, the teaching quality criterion has a weight of 30%; in Latin America, 36%. Research, in terms of volume and productivity, also weighs more in the regional ranking (34%) than in the global ranking (30%). The influence of research, measured in terms of citations, has more value in the global ranking (30%) than in the Latin American ranking (20%).

positions

The second position in the new ranking is occupied by USP. The following Brazilian universities are also among the top ten: Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp – 7th position), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ – 8th position) and Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio – 9th position). Brazil continues to present the best performance among higher education institutions in Latin America, occupying 32 rankings in the table.

Phil Baty, editor of the Times Higher Education rankings, considered it “fantastic to see two universities of international quality compete for the prestige of being the main Brazilian institution in the ranking”. And he added: “The University of São Paulo is the larger and more traditional of the two institutions, while the State University of Campinas is smaller and better known for specializing in medical and scientific research. These two very different universities represent diversity and excellence in the higher education sector in Brazil.”

Regarding Brazil's performance in the ranking, Baty commented: “despite Brazil being well represented, only 18 Brazilian universities are among the top 50, a worsening compared to last year, when 23 were present. In total, 20 universities in Brazil dropped their position. Many of these universities have improved their overall score since last year, but have lost ground due to increased competition and because other institutions have improved at a faster rate.”

Classification of Brazilian universities

Ranking Table