US dominates global innovative universities ranking

Stanford University has topped Reuters’ ranking of the World’s Most Innovative Universities for the fourth year in a row, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, in the same order for the fourth year running.

The biggest mover was the United Kingdom’s University of Manchester, which leapt 27 places to 53rd in the global ranking.

The list ranks higher education institutions that are “doing the most to advance science, invent new technologies and power new markets and industries”.

According to Reuters, Stanford leads because of its “steady stream of patents and research, which are frequently cited by other academics around the world”.

The ranking is based on proprietary data and analysis of many indicators including patent filings and research paper citations.

Stanford’s recent research breakthroughs include the development of next generation camera systems to guide self-driving cars and simulators that can predict potential drug interactions before new drugs are tested on humans.

According to Reuters, United States universities continue to dominate the ranking, although a few UK and Asian institutions have risen this year.

The highest non-US institution was Belgium’s KU Leuven at seventh, followed by Imperial College London, UK, at eighth.

The University of Pennsylvania (fourth), the University of Washington (up two spots to fifth), the University of Texas System (sixth), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (ninth) and Vanderbilt University (10th) made up the rest of the top 10.

There were seven non-US universities in the top 20, however, including South Korea’s KAIST (11th) and Pohang University of Science and Technology (13th), Switzerland’s Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (12th), the UK’s University of Cambridge (18th), and Japan’s University of Tokyo (20th).

The judges of this year’s ranking say the University of Manchester’s jump is largely due to the university's "ground-breaking research" into the supermaterial, graphene, which was isolated at the university in 2004.

Graphene is one of the strongest materials on Earth, yet is extremely light, flexible and highly conductive – and could prove a hugely important ingredient for future innovations in electronics, energy, transportation and other industries.

The university continues to lead the world in research into the revolutionary material. The UK’s National Graphene Institute is based in Manchester and patents related to the supermaterial account for around a quarter of all filings from the university in the five-year period examined for the ranking.

CEO of Graphene@Manchester James Baker said: “It’s great to see Manchester’s innovative edge recognised. There are hundreds of highly cited research papers on graphene published by the university and National Graphene Institute each year.”

He added that the university is on the verge of opening the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre which will accelerate graphene commercialisation and translate research into applications alongside industry partners.

Geopolitical trends

According to Reuters, geopolitical trends are a factor in this year’s table.

In Europe, uncertainty over the United Kingdom’s ‘Brexit’ from the European Union may already be pushing research out of the country. Germany added two universities to the Global Top 100 in 2018, and Reuters’ regional ranking of Europe’s Most Innovative Universities showed German universities gaining more than any other country.

“In Asia, Chinese universities are increasing their presence among the top 100 thanks to a new government push for innovation, and a focus on filing more patent applications.”

But the US’s continuing dominance is reflected in the country taking 46 of the top 100 places. Nearest challengers were Germany and Japan with nine each, followed by South Korea (eight), and China, France and the UK (all with five).

By regions the split of top 100 entries was North America (48), followed by Europe (27), Asia (23), the Middle East (2), but none in Africa, South America or Oceania.

The global list was limited to institutions with 70 or more patents with the World Intellectual Property Organization during the five-year period examined by Thomson Reuters.