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February 10, 2016
Top 25 universities over 400 years old
Times Higher Education World University Rankings data reveal the
best ancient institutions
Doubts continue to linger that William Shakespeare didn’t really
write all of “his” plays,
without the benet of a university education. So which historical
institutions should the
real Bard of Avon have attended?
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The Times Higher Education 25 Over 400 ranking lists the best
ancient institutions, to mark
the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.
The UK tops the list, with the universities of Oxford
(https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/university-of-oxford?
edinburgh?ranking-dataset=133819) claiming the rst three places. In
terms of national
representatives, the UK is also joint leader in the table: both it
and Germany have six
universities each.
Just one university outside Europe makes the list, South
Korea’s Sungkyunkwan University
(https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/sungkyunkwan-
university-skku?ranking-dataset=133819) (SKKU), in 19th
place.
Italy is absent from the table despite being home to the oldest
institution in the world, the
University of Bologna
(https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-
Overall, 11 countries feature in the table.
The University of Oxford
(https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-
rankings/university-of-oxford), which traces its history back to
1096, is the oldest
institution to make the 25 Over 400 ranking, while the Netherlands’
University of
Groningen
(https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/university-
in 1614.
Duncan Ross, data and analytics director at THE , said that
the list shows “the origin of our
modern university systems as they move away from the religious
training institutions they were, into something that was starting
to become more recognisable”.
“Despite all the evidence that points to Shakespeare’s being from
the English Midlands,
the conspiracy theories around who he might have been refuse to die
away. So we
thought it would be fun to look at the universities that a more
educated Shakespeare
might have attended,” he said.
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“Admittedly our data are the modern data from those institutions
(accurate information
from the 17th century is methodologically challenging), and reect
only the institutions in
our current top 800 [of the THE World University Rankings
2015-16].
“Could Shakespeare really have been educated in Korea? Is
Macbeth really a dramatisation
of the founding of the Joseon dynasty? Or is it about Scotland
after all?”
The ranking was compiled using the data collected for the Times
Higher Education World
University Rankings 2015-16
(https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-
rankings/2016/world-ranking#!/page/0/length/25), but ltered to only
include those
institutions that are more than 400 years old. The 25 institutions
with the highest scores
are included in the table below. The average age of the top 200
institutions in the 2015-16
rankings is 213 years old.
The THE Young Universities Summit
(http://www.cvent.com/events/young-universities-
summit/event-summary-8d82ea5a445a4f38aa480e542dcdc3bb.aspx) will
take place at
Pompeu Fabra University
(https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-
rankings/pompeu-fabra-university) in Barcelona from 5 to 7 April to
discuss how
disruptive young innovators in higher education can challenge the
traditional elites, such
as the ones listed below.
[email protected]
(mailto:
[email protected])
Rank Institution
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15 University of Basel
(https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/unive
16 University of Geneva
(https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/uni
17 University of Vienna
(https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/uni
18 University of Lausanne
(https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/u
19 Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)
(https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-
20 University of Cologne
(https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/un
21 Trinity College Dublin
(https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/tri
23 University of Aberdeen
(https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/u
24 University of Barcelona
(https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/
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6:14pm
January 14, 2016
November 6, 2015
August 6, 2015
italiane ( bologna,pisa,pavia,ecc.ecc.....signicativo!
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6:19pm
#3 (/comment/6736#comment-6736) Submitted by ellie.bothwell on
February 17, 2016 - 3:29pm
#4 (/comment/6765#comment-6765) Submitted by R_P_Wells_273249 on
February 19, 2016 - 11:01pm
#5 (/comment/6921#comment-6921) Submitted by Ian1 on February 28,
2016 - 1:14am
#6 (/comment/7191#comment-7191) Submitted by peter_clive_281190 on
March 10, 2016 - 5:05pm
Have your say Log in
(/user/login?destination=node/368598%23comment-form) or register
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destination=node/368598%23comment-form) to post comments
...e non nomino l'universitá di salerno che ha avuto origine dalla
scuola dell'ottavo secolo....e scusate se é
poco.
Although Italy has many ancient universities that feature in
our World University Rankings, none of them
ranked high enough to be included in this top 25 list.
"The Top 25 (implicitly European) Universities Founded Before
Shakespeare Died"? I thought that I'd already seen the most
meaningless university rankings possible, but the Times Higher has
topped them
all.
What if Shakespeare wanted to read medicine at Barts? Surely QMUL
is ranked higher than many of
these; and if you say that Barts hadn't then merged with QMUL, then
Aberdeen should be in twice for
King's and Marischal.
Glad to see all four of Scotland's ancient universities included :)
(St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen,
Edinburgh)
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(https://www.timeshighereducation.com/unijobs/listing/26424/?
(https://www.timeshighereducation.com/unijobs/listing/26335/?
trackid=10)
NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY
(https://www.timeshighereducation.com/unijobs/listing/26333/?
(https://www.timeshighereducation.com/unijobs/listing/26332/?
May 26, 2016
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8
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10
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