Unicamp remained among the 20 best universities in BRICS – the group of emerging countries formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa –, assumed national leadership in the area of social sciences and emerged ahead of other Brazilian institutions also in the area of education. These are the main highlights of the international university rankings released this week by the QS consultancy and the Times Higher Education (THE) publication, both British, specialized in higher education and responsible for organizing the most respected rankings in the sector.
QS and THE released five rankings this week. The first to leave, on Tuesday (16), was 2019 edition of the QS ranking for BRICS, in which Unicamp appeared in 16th place. The other four, all from THE and restricted to specific areas of knowledge, left on Wednesday (17). Unicamp maintained its position in the rankings in the social sciences area and made its debut in the rankings in the areas of education and business and economics. The University was left out of the fourth ranking released by THE because it does not carry out teaching and research activities in the area in question, law.
The QS ranking for BRICS
Unicamp was the second highest ranked Brazilian in the 2019 edition of the QS ranking for BRICS. It was second only to USP, 14th on the list. Unesp, which completes the trio of state companies in São Paulo, then emerged as the third best in the country in the ranking, in 29th place. QS evaluated 399 universities in total: 112 from China, 101 from Russia, 90 from Brazil, 83 from India and 13 from South Africa.
Although it lost four positions in relation to the 2018 ranking, which comprised 300 universities, Unicamp maintained its historic position among the top 20 in the BRICS. The University has been included in this group since QS published its first specific ranking for the five emerging countries, in 2014.
In the 2019 edition, half of the top 20 positions – including the five at the top of the table – were filled by Chinese universities. The other ten positions went to four Russian universities, four other Indian universities and the two aforementioned representatives from Brazil, Unicamp and USP.
QS prepared the 2019 ranking based on eight indicators, to which it assigned different weights for the composition of each university's final grade: academic reputation (30%), reputation with the employer (20%), teachers per student (20% ), professors with doctorates (10%), articles per professor (10%), citations per article (5%), international professors (2,5%) and international students (2,5%).
Two of the indicators that yielded the highest scores for Unicamp were academic reputation and reputation with the employer, which bought the University's prestige in the international scientific community (see this figure Unicamp's performance in these indicators compared to other universities). Unicamp's score was only higher in the indicator that considers the percentage of professors with a doctorate - which is, in this case, 99%, according to the most recent edition of the University's Statistical Yearbook (see here Unicamp's scores in each of the eight indicators).
THE rankings by areas
Unicamp was the Brazilian university that achieved the highest position in the THE ranking for the area of social sciences). The good performance was repeated in education area ranking, in which Unicamp shared the national leadership with USP. This was the first time that Unicamp and other Brazilian universities entered both the education and field rankings. business and economics area.
In the ranking of the social sciences area, Unicamp gained national leadership due to the fall of USP, alongside those that were among the 201st and 250 best universities in the world, for the block that comprises positions numbered 251 to 300. In In relation to the 2018 edition, the first with the presence of Unicamp, the number of universities listed increased from 400 to 666. As a consequence, Brazilian representation also grew, from 4 to 19 institutions.
The rankings in the areas of education and business and economics also had their universes significantly expanded. In the first case, the total number of universities increased from 100 to 428; in the second, the increase was even greater, from 100 to 585 institutions.
Unicamp debuted in the education ranking between positions 151 and 175, the same ranking obtained by USP. The two São Paulo state universities were ahead of 13 other Brazilian universities. In the ranking of the business and economics area, Unicamp was classified in the block that encompasses positions number 401 to 500. USP achieved the best position among the 13 Brazilian companies listed, between positions number 251 and 300.
The rankings by areas that THE released this week were based on 2019 edition of global university rankings presented by the publication in September. THE used the same 13 indicators that guided the creation of the list of the best universities in the world, but made small adaptations to the methodology to adapt it to the characteristics of each area.
