NEWS

Young universities in Asia are strongly represented
in rankings for high-quality research output

New Nature Index rankings of universities aged 50 and under reveal that institutes in Asian countries
are performing particularly well in terms of output of high-quality research.

© Springer Nature

The first Nature Index Young universities tables and supplement, which rank universities aged 50 and under have just been published. The tables reveal that young universities in China, South Korea and Singapore are performing particularly well in terms of producing high-quality research. Two tables are included in the print version of the Young universities supplement: a top 50 table that ranks young universities by their Fractional Count (FC*), and a top 25 rising table that ranks young universities according to the difference in their FC from 2015 to 2018. The online tables also include rankings broken down by subject.

Further features in the supplement explore the reasons why young universities are so successful at producing high-quality research. One interesting finding from the supplement shows, for example, that Germany and China each have 11 young universities in the top 100 Nature Index of young universities, yet the collective output of Germany’s young universities is less than one-third of their Chinese peers. Case studies of successful young universities from Switzerland, China, South Korea, the US, Australia and France are presented, as well as an interview with the president of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

David Swinbanks, Founder of the Nature Index, said: “It is interesting to observe that many of the most successful young universities have similar traits. Apart from being free from the traditions that often characterize older institutions, these younger universities often have strong interdisciplinary cultures, and pride themselves on promoting creative thinking, as well as providing leadership opportunities for young and mid-career researchers. These measures also help to attract a diverse student population and encourage the pursuit of unconventional research that inspires innovation.”