Times of Higher Education (THE) recently announced Latin America world university rankings. The data was collected from institutions and Scopus to assess the institution’s reputation. Five ranking “pillars” were created corresponding to the “core” missions of each institution:
- Teaching
- Research
- Citations
- Industry income
- International outcome
In addition, following key statistical information was provided by the institutions:
- Number of full-time equivalent (FTE) students.
- Ratio of FTE students to number of staff.
- Percentage of international students.
- Ratio of female to male students.
Ranking Latin America Universities
For 2017 rankings, 81 institutions from eight countries were analyzed. Institutions from both Argentina and Ecuador were reviewed for the first time. Brazil’s institutions occupied five of the top 10 rankings.
The following institutions were ranked as the top 10 for 2017:
- State University of Campinas, Brazil: Strong scores in research citations and industry income.
- University of São Paulo, Brazil: Considered one of Brazil’s most prestigious and largest universities.
- Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Chile: Outstanding performance in mathematics, physics, economics, and management.
- University of Chile, Chile: Home of the National Astronomy Observatory.
- University of the Andes, Colombia: One of South America’s leading institutions.
- Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Mexico: \Provides high school programs in engineering, management, social, arts and human sciences, and medicine.
- Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil: Has programs specifically to teach students to become health professionals and contributes to medical research.
- Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: One of the largest in Brazil.
- Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Brazil: Focuses on scientific and innovative research.
- National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico: Houses the Centre for Applied Sciences and Technological Development.
Research in Latin American suffers from low salaries, lack of funding, and too much government oversight. Fortunately, things are changing and some universities have moved up in the ranks because of it. THE has identified seven countries— Thailand, Argentina, Chile, Turkey, Iran, Colombia, and Serbia (TACTICS)—as potential superstars in the fields of research and are the ones to watch.
