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Don’t trust the rankings that put China’s universities on top
They churn out research papers at a rapid pace, but the quality of these publications has too often been in question.
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Many professors in top-ranked Chinese universities such as Tsinghua (above) received their doctorates from American universities, says the writer.
PHOTO : AFP
Ariel Procaccia
Harvard, where I teach computer science, used to consistently lead the Leiden Ranking, which rates the research output of universities around the world. Recently, though, Harvard fell to a dismal third, while eight of the top 10 universities came from China
Harvard remains at the top of two other rankings, the Nature Index and the University Ranking by Academic Performance, but the upper tiers of those rankings are also increasingly crowded with Chinese universities. (Notably, one ranking that still looks favourably on American universities is Chinese.)
