The Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities has released the 2013 global top 500 institutions. Five Australian universities have made it into the top 100:
The success of Australian universities highlights the quality of higher education in Australia. Click here to see all the rankings.
Ninety-eight percent of Caltech’s bachelor’s degrees were granted in STEM fields, making it one of the top STEM universities in the country.What are the leading STEM universities in the U.S.?
As part of the U.S. News STEM Solutions conference, we are publishing an exclusive new list of the National Universities from our 2013 Best Colleges rankings that grant the largest proportion of bachelor's degrees in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.
California Institute of Technology and Colorado School of Mines tied for first place with 98 percent of their degrees granted in STEM fields. Missouri University of Science & Technology came in third with 91 percent; Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts finished fourth with 88 percent; and Massachusetts Institute of Technology was in fifth with 86 percent.
To determine which college majors to evaluate, U.S. News used the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's list of science, technology, engineering and math designated-degree programs.
Then, looking at the school year that ended on June 30, 2012, we added up how many bachelor's degrees granted at each school were in these STEM fields using the latest degree-completion data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Next, we computed the percentage of each school's total 2012 bachelor's degrees that were granted in STEM fields and then sorted the schools in descending order based on the largest proportion of STEM degrees granted. A school had to have a third or more of its degrees granted in STEM fields to be listed as a top-ranked STEM university.
How should these results be interpreted? Many of the highest-ranked research universities in the U.S. are also on this new STEM list since they grant large proportions of STEM degrees. This means that these schools emphasize STEM fields in their curriculum and degree offerings.
In fact, 23 of the 39 schools on the STEM list were ranked among the top 50 Best National Universities in 2013 and five were ranked in the top 10.
The STEM list also reveals that there are only 15 top-ranked universities with 50 percent or more of their bachelor's degrees awarded in STEM fields, and only 39 that had a third or more of their degrees in these fields. This shows that STEM education at many of the top-ranked U.S. universities is not the main academic priority.
Only schools that were numerically ranked in the top half of the National Universities category in the 2013 Best Colleges rankings were eligible to be included in this STEM analysis.
As a result, the following schools that have all or nearly all of their bachelor's degrees granted in STEM fields are not included on the list: Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Webb Institute, Harvey Mudd College, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Kettering University, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology and South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.
The table below shows the top-ranked universities that granted the largest proportions of bachelor's degrees in STEM fields.
The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College and The Short List: Grad School to find data that matters to you in your college or grad school search.
The challenge of getting into school, paying for it and earning good grades is hard enough for some students. But today, some face an added obstacle: finding on-campus housing.
The country is facing a shortage of on-campus student housing at public and private schools, according to a 2012 report by the National Multi Housing Council that analyzed data between 2000 and 2010. The last decade saw a 38.7 percent increase in student enrollment, fueled partly by the size of Generation Y and economic uncertainty, the group found.
As enrollment surged, most states have seen a smaller percentage of students living in dorms. Areas with the highest campus housing shortages include Arizona, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Iowa, Minnesota and West Virginia.
Despite the shortage, some universities are still housing most of their students on campus.
[Learn how to get along with your roommate.]
Harvard University tops the list of National Universities with the highest percentage of undergraduate students living on campus in fall 2011, according to data reported to U.S. News in an annual survey. The Ivy League school has 98 percent of its undergraduates living on campus.
Harvard also has the number one spot in the U.S. News Best National Universities rankings, tying with Princeton, which is also on the housing list. Six other schools on the housing list fall within the top 10 of the U.S. News Best National Universities rankings: California Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University and Dartmouth College. The lowest-ranked school on the list was St. Mary's University of Minnesota, which placed 174.
Of the 247 ranked National Universities that provided data to U.S. News about campus housing, an average of 38 percent of the undergraduate population lives on campus.
Schools that were designated by U.S. News as Unranked were not considered for this report. U.S. News did not calculate a numerical ranking for Unranked programs, because the program did not meet certain criteria that U.S. News requires to be numerically ranked.
[Explore how theme dorms promote diversity.]
The table below highlights 10 National Universities with the highest percentage of undergraduates living in campus housing in fall 2011.
Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find the percentages of students living on campus, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.
U.S. News surveyed more than 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2012 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported a myriad of data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News's data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News's rankings of Best Colleges or Best Graduate Schools. The on-campus data above are correct as of June 18, 2013.
The National University of Ireland, Maynooth ranks 74th in the world among new universities, according to rankings published by the Times Higher Education. NUI Maynooth ranked highest among universities in Ireland and received particularly high marks for its research achievements, reputation for teaching, numbers of PhDs awarded and international outlook.
Universities in the rankings are less than 50 years old. Click here to read more.
