The Webometrics Ranking of World Universities provides another estimate of the top universities. The methodology is far ideal however I still find it interesting. The various attempts to rank schools can provide a general idea of impact of various institutions (though the measures are fairly crude). Still a sensible picture (especially at the country level) can emerge. And the various rankings should be a able to track shifts in the most influential institutions and relative country strength over time. How quickly those rankings track changes will vary depending on the measures used. I would imagine most will lag the “real” changes as it is easy to imagine many measures that would lag. Still, as I have said before, I expect the USA will lose in relative ranking compared to China, India, Japan, Singapore, Mexico…

The ranking methodology used here weighed rankings in: Jiao Tong academic rankings, Essential Science Indicators, Google Scholar, Alexa (a measure of web site visits to universities) and The Times Higher World University Rankings.

Country representation of the top universities (number of top schools in each country):

* IMF, World Economic Outlook Database, September 2006 (2005 data)

Top 10 schools:

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT)
• Stanford University
• Harvard University
• University of California at Berkeley
• Penn State University
• University of Michigan
• Cornell University
• University of Illinois
• University of Wisconsin at Madison
• University of Texas at Austin

The reports also includes the top 500 Research and Development Institutions:

Related: Asia - Rising Stars of Science and Engineering - Diplomacy and Science Research - Worldwide Science and Engineering Doctoral Degree Data - Relative Scientific Leadership