Hebrew University President Prof. Menachem Magidor
Photo: Fayer Tourjeman
Global rankings for universities: Hebrew U ranked 82
In a Newsweek ranking of top universities around the world, Hebrew University in Jerusalem wins prestigious spot among top 100. China's Shanghai Jiaotong University ranks university 60th of 500
In a recently published list of the top 100 universities in the world, the American magazine Newsweek ranked Hebrew University in Jerusalem 82nd among global universities. The other universities in Israel were not on the list.
The list is dominated by well-known universities in the United States, Europe and the Far East, and topped by three American universities: Harvard, Stanford and Yale. Hebrew University is the sole representative of the Middle East.
Universities were ranked by a number of criteria: Fifty percent of the score was derived from the number of highly-cited researchers in various academic fields, the number of articles published in Nature and Science, and the number of articles listed in the ISI Social Sciences and Arts & Humanities indices.
Another 40 percent of the score came from the percentage of international faculty, the percentage of international students, citations per faculty member (using ISI data), and the ratio of faculty to students. The final 10 percent came from library holdings (number of volumes).
In explanation of the list, Newsweek said that "in response to the same forces that have propelled the world economy toward global integration, universities have also become more self-consciously global: seeking students from around the world who represent the entire spec¬trum of cultures and values, sending their own students abroad to prepare them for global careers, offering courses of study that address the challenges of an inter¬ connected world and collaborative research programs to advance science for the benefit of all humanity."
Chinese ranking: Hebrew U at 60th place
In a different ranking list, published by Shanghai Jiaotong University in China, the Hebrew University was ranked in sixtieth place, among the 500 leading universities in the world. This was a significant jump from 2005, when the university was ranked 78th.
In the Shangai ratings, other Israeli universities were ranked as follows: Technion -115, Tel Aviv University – 116, Weitzman Institute – 151, Bar Ilan University – 303, Ben Gurion University – 304, Haifa University – 467. The list's top three universities were Harvard, Cambridge, and Stanford.
"This ranking, without a doubt, is an honor for the Hebrew University, which stands out among the leading universities of the world," said Hebrew University President Professor Menachem Magidor. "However, the future of the university and higher education in Israel is still in danger if the budget cuts for university funds undertaken in recent years do not cease."
"It is clear that we cannot continue to reduce the budget for instruction and research and still expect that the standards we have strived so hard to build – and which have launched us to one of the top spots among global universities – will be maintained and improved," he added.
