Brazil tops the rankings

Sixty-five out of the 250 universities in the 2012 QS University ranking on Latin America’s 19 countries are Brazilian – with the University of São Paulo taking the top spot.

“The dominance of Brazil reflects a focus on higher education as the key to unlocking its huge economic potential. The boom in research of the country’s universities follows major investments in research and development,” says Danny Byrne, editor of http://TopUniversities.com, which publishes the rankings. Nine of the top ten universities in the region with the most research papers per faculty member are Brazilian and so are the nine universities with the most academics with a PhD.

However, if the top 200 universities in QS’s Latin American ranking were measured according to their countries’ populations, Brazil would fall behind Chile, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Panama, Argentina, Colombia and Peru. Chile for example now has four universities in the top ten, ahead of Brazil with three, Mexico with two and Colombia with one. Universidad de Chile and Pontificia Universidad de Chile, which ranked under the top ten in last year already, are now flanked by Universidad de Concepción, from the city most damaged by the massive 2010 earthquake, and Universidad de Santiago. The first three are in the top 15 for papers per faculty, slightly weakening Brazil’s dominance.

Neighbour Argentina does not perform as well. All of the 10 leading Argentinean universities ranked lower than last year, with Universidad de Buenos Aires now ranked as number 11.

The greatest weight in the QS university ranking has the academic and employer reputation surveys with 30 per cent of the total rating. For the second year running, Mexico is the best-rated country by Latin America’s academics and employers. Universidad Autónoma de México winning with the academics and Tecnológico de Monterrey by the employers.

(2012/08) Sources: QS-Top Universities / University World News