Here in the UK Oxford & Cambridge are the two top Universities. Graduates from these two universities dominate the top jobs in many different industries. Does your country have an equivalent?
Posted Mar 16, 2016, 10:43 AM UTC · edited
We don't really have any 'super-elite' universities like Oxford and Cambridge in Germany. Universities which excel in research receive extra funding. This is called 'excellence initiative', and the universities which receive this are sometimes called 'elite universities'. These 11 unis are currently (in no particular order):
Considering you don't have super elite universities what do the top performing students do when they leave school? Stay in Germany for uni or go abroad?
Some top graduates, at least in Engineering are going abroad for at least some time, either to work or do research. But a lot stay in germany, most probably in the south. When we talk about Engineering (which is the topic I know most about, as I study electric Engineering) there are the most prestigious Universities, like the ones listed above, but also a lot of good universities who aren´t mentioned there. TU Dortmund and the Ruhr-Uni Bochum have very good faculties for electric and mechanic engineering but are sadly never mentioned, even though they do a lot of research and the learning posibillities are excellent.
Also I see it the way, that the points for beeing an elite-university are thought after the anglo-saxon Uni-system, so for non-anglos it would be difficult to appear in this lists.
'that the points for beeing an elite-university are thought after the anglo-saxon Uni-system, so for non-anglos it would be difficult to appear in this lists.'
How do you mean?
I think he means that the metrics used to measure Universities are biased towards those who follow a slightly different model to the German ones, so while they don't top those table they excel in other areas.
Measuring universities is actually really difficult. A lot of rankings do it by research but a lot of students at "good" universities complain about the actual standard of education... so are they actually all that good? I went to a University ranked around ~150 which is often derided as crap, but the education I got there seems to have been a lot better than some of my comrades who went to "great" universities.
Similarly some measure by student satisfaction but students only go to one university so how do they really know how good it is?
I'd guess the University of Leiden is probably the most prestigious. It's the oldest university in the country too and tends to high in international rankings. I do believe its been ranked lower in recent years though, with the University of Wageningen ranked highest now.
Also, TU Delft has a reputation akin to that of MIT.
I thought it was Utrecht that was your Oxford?
Well, the Netherlands has a lot of really good universities. The uni of Utrecht is a bit larger, and also very prestigious on a European/Global level. Honestly, it all depends on who you ask and which list you look at. Sometimes Leiden is rated higher, sometimes Utrecht. They´re both elite universities.
TU/e has a good reputation for civil engineering.
Also, obligatory "fuck Leiden" comment, because it's really fucking elitist.
Whether a certain university stands out really depends on the field of study and the type of job. A large number of influential politicians may have gone to Leiden (and being members of the same frat/association), but I've never heard (for example) strategy consultants or Big-4-firms express preference for any university. Neither have I heard of engineering firms expressing preference for graduates of any of the technical universities. On the whole, our division in universities and 'HBO' makes each category in itself more equal.
I doubt that objectively speaking Oxford and Cambridge stand out all that much either. That's not the point. The point is that they have a certain prestigious reputation; just as universities like Leiden do.
TU Delft's reputation on that other hand feels based more on the active research it does and the products that come out of it; but I don't know whether objectively it accomplishes more in that area than other Dutch universities. They could just have great press.
Well, it's still Oxford and Cambridge but I think for Scotland specifically it is St Andrews and Edinburgh.
but I think for Scotland specifically it is St Andrews and Edinburgh
To add to that I think Glasgow and Aberdeen are close to those two as well. At least in terms of law faculties (I think St Andrews only started offering it recently AFAIK)
I'm not too educated on law faculties nor on unis in general but I've always seen St Andrews and Edinburgh as a step above when it comes to pure prestige. I'm from Glasgow and worked around the university for awhile and a lot of the students seem to be local, from other parts of the UK, or the typical internationals (i.e. Chinese, Indians..) whereas I know St Andrews attracts lots of the kinds of foreigners who don't need to go abroad for a good education like Aussies and Americans as well as royalty obviously which indicates to me an internationally great reputation and I know Edinburgh specifically is a big deal for politics and economics studies.
I'm not too educated on law faculties nor on unis in general
You and me both.
pure prestige.
True, though the snob effect wears off fairly quickly...or maybe it's because it's tough to pass here hah. Or maybe because everything looks terrible given that reconstruction of almost everything.
I know Edinburgh specifically is a big deal for politics and economics studies.
Aye, that's true. They take in masses every year and they really do bust your balls on it.
Source: did Econ 1A along with my law studies. Never....ever again.
Don't underestimate the snob effect in a country with a rigid class sytem (UK)
Well, for Russia it's definitely Moscow State University and St Petersburg State University.
Vilnius university. Founded in 1579, top university in Lithuania. And it looks very fancy :)
The view from the bell tower is pretty nice, yeah.
This looks like Saint Sulpice
Aalto is the top university here in Finland.
Based on what metric?
Edit: I'd say Helsinki University is the most prestigious. Aalto might be the most prestigious when it comes to engineering, but I wouldn't say it's the most prestigious university.
Well, at least Helsinki Uni acts like it's the only one in the country.
Ecole Polytechnique de Paris
Ecole Normale Supérieure Ulm, Cachan et Lyon
Ecole Centrale de Paris
Panthéon-Sorbonne
Ecole des Mines
HEC Paris
INSEAD Fontainebleau
ESCP Europe
Institut de Sciences Politiques de Paris
Université Paris-Descartes
Université Paris-Dauphine
Université Pierre et Marie Curie
Ecole de Chartres
Ecole Militaire de Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan
French schools are generally very small and discipline specific unlike their anglo-saxon counterparts. For example, each ENS class is around 50 people; but the track record of the school is absolutely mind-blowing.
Sooooooo Descartes, Dauphine , Sorbonne(which by the way are huge like several thousand people) but no Ponts-et-chaussées, Télécom, Supaero, Ensae... I mean I get your point about small promotion of excellence, but french university doesn't really comply, especially regarding what op post (dominate top job). But yeah a myriad a Grande Ecole that's for sure
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Dayum, shit got real
There are none in Poland.
In Poland university might accept as many students as it wishes and it will get money from government for every student. The universities are not stupid, they know that the best strategy is to enroll thousands of students every year and then not bother them with any work, because well - if someone drops out, the money stops, so why stress a student? since everyone here knows our higher education is a joke, there is no reason to favour any of universities, because, well - all of them are equally bad.
(I studied at Warsaw University, usually the top of the rankings. Once I enrolled a course and then realised that I would not be able to attend it, because of my other activities. I somehow messed up the administrative way to quit the course and ta-dam - at the end of the year I found out I finished the course with a great grade. Not even going there once.)
Tada, it had to be a system error! People who follow top field of studies at Warsaw University or Jagiellonian have to study hard, thus stop spreading misleading information.
While i agree with you that we have a problem with our higher education (so many shitty unis and uselees fields of studies) , I think TOP unis still represent a top class.
Sorry I can't agree. I think our top unis are too big to be prestigeous. Surely, some people work hard, yet it is so easy to graduate, many do it with no effort.
I take part in recruiting new workers at my office. My task is to ask law graduates simple questions about law. It happens really often that those applying fresh after those top unis know nothing about basic issues. This can't be just a system error, there has to be something rotten in the system itself.
edit: just reminded about how low we are in every international ranking. Sorry but i cannot say it is unjust.
I have been studying in The Netherlands, studied for a moment in Portugal and Poland. I also dealt with students from almost every european country, In most cases Polish students do better than avarage.
Sounds roughly like Hungary, some unis have a good historical name, ELTE, etc. but they don't really help much in getting a good job. Certainly better chance than some small town college (for some reason our governments wanted to put a bachelor level college into every place that is not too rural).
I don't even know how the top jobs are distributed. I guess studying abroad helps, or political contacts or dad having business contacts.
I live now in Austria and noticed the Economic Uni is pretty brutal, students tell me that at many exams 95% of the people fail it and it is not uncommon to graduate and start one's working life at 30. But whether it is smooth sailing to a top job or not I don't know. I noticed monster.at typically lists technical, not economist/business admin jobs.
In Norway; NTNU (Even though it has fallen from grace since it was known as NTH and specialized in STEM.) and NHH for economics. Also fallen in the ranks. The largest university in Oslo couldn't even manage to calculate their scores correct in a self-evaluation for The Times educational ranking and plunged 20+ spots from #85 or so.
Universidad Complutense de Madrid is probably the best university here in spain.
Na, Autonoma de Madrid y Autonoma de Barcelona.
The University of Tartu for sure.
Bocconi University for sure. The other one (probably) is LUISS.
Pisa Normale and Milan, Turin politecnici get mention too
Macedonia - Ss Cyril and Methodius.
Charles University in Prague and Masaryk University in Brno for Czech Rep. But it also heavily depends on the particular faculties.
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Don't worry buddy, don't invest in universities, spend your money on fun and go study for free in Germany
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Well it's free and not too cold. Norse countries are also free. In France it also might be but it won't be in English!
Trinity College.
I've heard of that, so it must be good.
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University College Dublin or just UCD aswell.