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Cambridge sixth in new worldwide ranking

Oxbridge ranked in the top 10 worldwide.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/Breaking-News/US-universities-dominate-top-10/2004/11/04/1099547310341.html?oneclick=true

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/3982113.stm

Reply 1

Immortal Wombat

I preferred the one last month when we got third.

Reply 2

inactive__user

I personally think they are a load of rubbish, as good as harvard is i am almost certain it couldn't compare to either of oxford or cambridge...university isn't just about learning it's about a certain culture and oxford or cambridge both most certainly have them!

Reply 3

Willa

11

any table which puts oxford above cambridge is fundamentally flawed. I would confine it to the pile of opinionated pre-modern garbage.

Reply 4

Adhsur

15

I smell stinking bias!

Reply 5

Immortal Wombat

Willa

any table which puts oxford above cambridge is fundamentally flawed. I would confine it to the pile of opinionated pre-modern garbage.

Unless it was biased towards arts subjects rather than sciences, somehow.

Reply 6

Veedy

Adhsur

I smell stinking bias!

Why - just because Oxford came above Cambridge? Oh my.. :eek:

!!!!!

Willa

any table which puts oxford above cambridge is fundamentally flawed. I would confine it to the pile of opinionated pre-modern garbage

Seems to me like something other than this table is flawed..........

Immortal Wombat

I preferred the one last month when we got third

Ask someone to give you an objective viewpoint on the criteria that this table uses compared to the other one and then make your own mind up.

Reply 7

crazydaveuk

From the BBC link-

There are other ranking systems.

In September, one published by academics in China placed Cambridge third, behind Harvard and Stanford.

Oxford was eighth, while British universities were ranked second overall, behind the USA.

So nothing is set in stone...
TBH I'm not sure I care much either way.

Reply 8

visesh

17

Veedy

Why - just because Oxford came above Cambridge? Oh my.. :eek:

!!!!!

Seems to me like something other than this table is flawed..........

Ask someone to give you an objective viewpoint on the criteria that this table uses compared to the other one and then make your own mind up.

I think Adshur was actually referring to Willa's post, which was made in jest, as was Wombat. I can't honeslty believe that either of them *actually care* what the rankings are. We all know that both of the institutions rank amongst the best in Europe and the world, and that all of these rankings are just arbitrary.

Reply 9

RetiredAccount89

18

visesh

I think Adshur was actually referring to Willa's post, which was made in jest, as was Wombat. I can't honeslty believe that either of them *actually care* what the rankings are. We all know that both of the institutions rank amongst the best in Europe and the world, and that all of these rankings are just arbitrary.

i think the more uss thing about this new league is how highly rated the ozzie universities are. A ridiculous number of them in the top 20.

Reply 10

Willa

11

well my honest opinion on league tables is generalised ones are a load of rubbish....especially when they try to distinguish the top 10. The top 10 universities all have generally superb facilities, and so their only differences will be in teaching styles. Thus the only tables I consider looking at are subject specific, but then even without that, most people already know what the reality is....for example, which science, cambridge beats oxford (and i'm not just saying that cos i'm here....my oxford science friends KNOW that, they just chose the oxford course cos it had less maths and more applied stuff in it as far as they could tell)...but when it comes to more arty subjects, I think oxford beats cambridge. Both have their strengths, both are v strong....but you dont need a league table to tell which is generally more respected than another in a given field.

Reply 11

Adhsur

15

I wasn't being serious at all :smile:

I was just thinking about the fact that so many american unis came top...

Now taht I look at it properly, I guess it's pretty reasonable!

Reply 12

Matilda

Adhsur

I wasn't being serious at all :smile:

I was just thinking about the fact that so many american unis came top...

Now taht I look at it properly, I guess it's pretty reasonable!

Booooooooooooooooooooooo Cambridge sucks.

Reply 13

Adhsur

15

Matilda

Booooooooooooooooooooooo Cambridge sucks.

And so do you. Keep trolling and you will be banned.

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Reply 14

Ralfskini

10

Willa

any table which puts oxford above cambridge is fundamentally flawed. I would confine it to the pile of opinionated pre-modern garbage.

I would agree with that and not just because I'm biased.

Reply 15

timelesspler

Ralfskini

I would agree with that and not just because I'm biased.

Reply 16

priya

14

Matilda

Booooooooooooooooooooooo Cambridge sucks.

thats nice dear.

Reply 17

Runehawk

USA unis come out top because they have more "excellent students" Harvard's capacity for kids studying is about 2 times that of Oxbridge I think.

Also they take students who, not only are special in their subject area but also have a phenomenal wide foundation of general knowledge and reasoning which isn't tested in the UK. So I guess some of their students will actually be more bright too.

A respectable top ten is a good achievement for a British university

Reply 18

KHL

Runehawk

USA unis come out top because they have more "excellent students" Harvard's capacity for kids studying is about 2 times that of Oxbridge I think.

Also they take students who, not only are special in their subject area but also have a phenomenal wide foundation of general knowledge and reasoning which isn't tested in the UK. So I guess some of their students will actually be more bright too.

A respectable top ten is a good achievement for a British university

from anecdotal evidence from classmates studying in oxford as well as top american institutions (good ivies, stanford, berkeley, MIT, Caltech...) the american students do *on average* work harder than oxbridge students.

HOWEVER, with regards to your second point, i believe that it is more of a function of the education system than it is that of individual ability. USA tends to favour breadth of education over depth. UK tends more to the latter. as a result, A level students from UK systems are able to get a significant amount of extra credit upon matriculation - most of my friends matriculated as sophomores (i.e. 2nd years) due to the extra credit they got from A level performance (4 A's, usually :rolleyes:

) the extra credit comes from acknowledgement that A level content is very frequently similar, if not the same, as the stuff taught in the first year of most american institutions. (chem, bio and physics 101 courses, for example)

american students tend to have a lot more general knowledge, or at least knowledge in a greater variety of areas though.

as for coming in top 10, i'd say it was pretty damn impressive given the circumstances - much poorer funding, much smaller pool (200 or 300 million vs 60 or 80 million population - okay, so my general knowledge is crap :tongue:

) as well as the general brain drain to the money wells that the american institutions are...

Cambridge sixth in new worldwide ranking

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