Unicamp maintained its position in the largest international ranking of university performance, released this Wednesday (26) by Times Higher Education (THE), a British publication responsible for educational assessments at both a regional and global level. According to the list, which considered the performance of 1.250 higher education schools from 86 countries, the University is located in the group that brings together positions from 401 to 500, the same performance as in the last two editions. Among Brazilian institutions, Unicamp is in second place, behind only USP, which is in group 251-300. From the 200th position onwards, the classification is presented in groups by THE. The list is led by the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom.
The result of the evaluation was well received by rector Marcelo Knobel. “Once again, Unicamp is very well positioned in the Times Higher Education (THE) ranking. Together with USP, we are among the best universities in Brazil and Latin America. We consider this result to be very positive, very interesting. It is worth remembering, however, that there are criticisms regarding the fact that the rankings do not fully measure the importance of universities, especially public ones, for society, the country and humanity in general. We are concerned about maintaining this positioning for the coming years, but knowing that the rankings are not capable of measuring everything we do for the benefit of society.”
In addition to Unicamp and USP, 34 other Brazilian universities are also present in the ranking. The Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) appear in third, fourth and fifth positions, respectively. The number of national institutions considered in the list is significantly higher than in the previous edition, when only 21 higher schools in Brazil were listed.
The World University Rankings evaluates universities based on four axes: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and degree of internationalization. THE adopts 13 performance indicators, which are calibrated to provide more comprehensive and balanced comparisons. Among others, issues such as quality of teaching, number of professors with doctorates, volume of scientific publications, citations in scientific articles, international projection and exchange of knowledge with other institutions are considered.
Latin America
In the specific ranking for Latin America and the Caribbean, also organized by THE, Unicamp was considered the best in the region in the last two editions. In 2018, Times Higher Education Latin America ranked 129 universities from ten countries. The evaluation criteria were the same as those applied in THE World University Rankings, but with modifications to better reflect the characteristics of higher education schools in the region.
