Danny Byrne takes a closer look at the results of the first ever QS World University Ranking for Psychology
Harvard tops the first ever QS World University Ranking for Psychology, ahead of University of Cambridge in second place and Stanford University in third. The US-Oxbridge dominance in the top ten is challenged by Australia's Melbourne University (8) and Canada's McGill University (10). However, with Oxford (4) joining Cambridge in the top 5, and US institutions Berkeley (5), UCLA (6), Yale (7) and Princeton (9) in the top 10, it is still the big US-UK comprehensive institutions that lead the way in psychology.
Psychology has a distinguished history at Harvard. The department of psychology was founded at the end of the 19th Century by the philosopher William James (brother of the novelist Henry James), and has established itself as one of the most important in the university. At undergraduate level psychology is one of Harvard's most popular courses, and a 2007 study by Chronicle of Higher Education found that it produced a greater volume of psychology research than any other US university. Harvard excelled in all three QS ranking criteria, ranking first for academic reputation, second (behind Cambridge) for employer reputation, and sixth for research citations.
US institutions took the top three spots for academic reputation, with California’s UC Berkeley and Stanford coming behind first-placed Harvard. However, among employers Cambridge was the most popular university. Many undergraduates at Cambridge study psychology as part of the Natural Sciences course (though specialized courses are offered at graduate level), an area in which Cambridge was ranked number one in the 2010 QS subject area rankings. Employers clearly recognize the calibre of Cambridge graduates in this subject area, and fellow UK institution Oxford also ranks in the top three in this measure, behind Harvard in second.
Outside of the US-UK nexus one of the talking points of the table was the performance of Australia's universities, with seven institutions in the top 50, led by Melbourne (8), Sydney (11) and Australia National University (20). Psychology is a well-funded and popular area of study in Australia, and the top-ranking Australian universities scored consistently across the three criteria, indicating a level of consensus as to their quality. Across the Tasman Sea, four New Zealand universities were represented, with two making the top 50: University of Auckland (27) and University of Otago (41=).
For continental European universities, strength in numbers came at the expense of quality at the very top. With 51 universities in the ranking, the region accounts for over a quarter of global top 200, but just one of the top 50: Denmark’s Aarhus University at 47, while Ireland's Trinity College Dublin ranks 48=. A further 18 continental European universities made it into the 51-100 bracket, including six from the Netherlands, five from Germany, two from Spain, two from Sweden, and one apiece from Belgium, Denmark and Italy.
The top Asian universities were University of Tokyo (18), National University of Singapore (22) and University of Peking (25), with a total of 19 Asian universities making the top 200. Hong Kong University (30) and Seoul National University (43) made the top 50, while the most widely-represented Asian nations were Japan, with 8 universities in the top 200, followed by Hong Kong and South Korea with three, Singapore and China with two, and Taiwan, whose sole representative was National university of Taiwan (51-100).
The rankings also featured a strong performance from Canada, proving that not all of the best work takes place south of the border. McGill University makes the top 10, while University of Toronto (13), University of British Columbia (16) and University of Alberta (50) join it in the top 50. A total of 14 Canadian universities make the top 200, a total bettered by only the US, UK and Australia.
Related world university rankings items
QS World University Ranking for Psychology
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