[Forwarded from SIGMETRICS]
Just published the second edition of 2008 of the Ranking Web of
Universities of the world (
http://www.webometrics.info/), confirming
that the North American universities (included the Canadians) still
maintain an important digital academic divide with the European
universities.
In the publication corresponding to July, the Laboratory of
Cibermetría, of the Spanish Research Council, the Ranking has
increased the world coverage and gives more attention to the
developing countries, especially to the Latin-American, African
institutions and of those the Arab world.
Among the Top 200 universities nothing less than 123 are North
American (106 from USA), whereas the Europeans place only 61
universities. Asia - Pacific has 14 universities in the group and
Latin America only two completing this elite.
The best ranked universities are basically the same as the MIT leads
the ranking followed by the Universities of Harvard and Stanford.
Other important Universities as Berkeley, Cornell or Toronto also
appear among the first ones. Nevertheless, Caltech or Johns Hopkins
remained slightly relegated due to inadequate web policies.
Among the European universities, Germany, taking into account the
number of universities among the best, is the leading country, but
the British and Nordic universities are the outstanding ones. The
University of Cambridge is the first European university (26),
followed by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich,
which advances up to the position 32 and overcomes to the
universities of Helsinki and Oxford, in the positions 42 and 47 of
the classification, respectively.
To point out some positions, we highlight the Vienna or Prague
Universities, but also the absence of French institutions or the
delayed position of the Imperial College, again due to practices that
penalize its Web position.
In the Asia-Pacific region, the first ranked is the Australian
National University (42), followed by University of Tokyo (54) and
the National Taiwan University (70). As usual Australian, Japanese,
Hong Kong and Singapore universities are well represented, but
Chinese ones are closing the gap.
Latin America maintains the two usual leaders, but the UNAM climbs up
to the position number 51, a relevant change from previous number 59.
The second one is the University of Sao Paulo, in the position number
113.
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Isidro F. Aguillo
Laboratorio de Cibermetría
Cybermetrics Lab
CCHS - CSIC
Joaquin Costa, 22
28002 Madrid. Spain
isidro -- cindoc.csic.es
+34-91-5635482 ext 313
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Received on Thu Aug 07 2008 - 13:15:59 BST