Transcription
Our next story is about a reset which is in the works. For years, American universities led the world in research, but now that leaderboard is changing. Apparently, Chinese universities are moving up in global rankings and some of America's biggest names are slipping down the list. This is not about who teaches better or who has a better campus life. It's about who publishes more research and whose work gets more referenced around the world. So, what is f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f fueling the shift and what does it mean for America's longheld edge over others? Here's a report.
>> Where does the world's most influential research happen? For several years, the answer was clear. The American universities, Harvard, Stanford, or MIT. They didn't just lead global rankings, they defined them. They shaped what counted as breakthrough research and attracted the brightest minds. Latest rankings reveal something striking that dominance is being rewritten and the challenge is coming from China. In the latest Leiden rankings, a Chinese university now sits at number one. Jed Jang University has taken the top spot. Harvard has slipped to the third spot. And this is not a small reshuffle. Eight Chinese universities are currently in the global top 10 on that list. In the early 2000s, seven American universities typically held those top spots. Back then, only one Chinese institution even made it to the top 25. But now, things are changing. So, what is driving the change? It starts with what these rankings actually measure.
>> The Leiden rankings focus narrowly on the research output. They count academic papers and how often those papers are cited. These rankings do not assess teaching quality or reflect the campus life or the full student experience. They are a research scoreboard. And by that measure, Chinese universities have surged. But this is not because the US is producing less. Harvard reportedly produces significantly more research today than it did two decades ago. The same is true for other major US institutions including Stanford, John's Hopkins, UCLA, Michigan, Penn, and the University of Washington. But now the difference is speed. China has spent more than two decades expanding research capacity at scale. It has more researchers, laboratories and funding. There has also been a strong push to publish in international journals including English language journals with wider reach that brings more citations and citations lift ranking performance. Meanwhile, American universities are dealing with fresh pressure at home.
>> The Trump administration has been slashing federal research funding. That matters because many top US universities depend heavily on government grants to support scientific work and research does not respond instantly. Work published today often began years earlier. So disruptions now can reshape output later. There is also a talent question. International student arrivals have dropped to the US. In August, they were nearly 20% lower than the year before. A combination of tighter visa rules and higher costs has led many students to look elsewhere. Countries like Germany, South Korea, Japan, and France are attracting more international students. China, meanwhile, has introduced new incentives to attract researchers. This includes a visa aimed at graduates of top science and technology universities. Still, this is not the end of the American dominance. Harvard still remains first on other parameters and US universities continue to rank strongly in broader lists that include reputation and prestige. But the signal is clear. The top tier is no longer a closed club. Research leadership is becoming more global and the next decade may depend on who can keep funding stable, attract talent and build for the long run. The world doesn't fit in boxes, so why should your news? From battlefields to negotiation tables, from internet outrage to real world injustice, >> the conversations everyone is having and the ones they're avoiding. It's the same show, but this new year, First Post America gets a new look. I'm Kerry Johnston and this is First Post America.