Ed note: London based Times Higher Education has ranked its top 20 small universities in the world. Click here for the full article. There are a few surprises on the USA soil to be sure. How familiar are you with these chosen schools!
“Times Higher Education has once again revealed the best small universities across the globe, and heard directly from the students at some of those institutions about what they love most about attending a small college. For some, it was about smaller classes; for others, it was about closer relationships with teachers; and many said that a greater sense of community was the factor that clinched it for them. Those students who studied at small universities based in larger cities said that they appreciated the perks of a more intimate campus at the same time as enjoying the hustle and bustle of metropolitan life.
To be eligible for the ranking, universities must appear in Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings 2018, teach more than four subjects, and have fewer than 5,000 students.
Students at a dozen of the smaller universities gave us an insight into their student life (see the links below) and it seems that this positive view of smaller schools is echoed by students from Paris to Tokyo.
Small World University rank 2018 University Country/region Number of students
1 California Institute of Technology United States 2209
2 École Polytechnique France 2799
3 Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna Italy 690
4 University of Luxembourg Luxembourg 4969
5 École Normale Supérieure de Lyon France 2221
6 Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology South Korea 4046
7 Clark University United States 3316
8 Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Sweden 3812
9 Free University of Bozen-Bolzano Italy 3304
10 University of Alaska Fairbanks United States 3769
11 Cyprus University of Technology Cyprus 3072
12 Sabancı University Turkey 3247
13 University of Tulsa United States 4671
14 Reykjavík University Iceland 3206
15 Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) Japan 2949
16 University of Neuchâtel Switzerland 4216
17 Bond University Australia 3215
18 École Normale Supérieure de Cachan France 1631
19 National Yang-Ming University Taiwan 4255
20 Tezpur University India 3611