Supercomputing Rankings: USA Makes a Comeback

22 June 2019

The TOP500 list is a ranking of the world’s most powerful supercomputers. The ranking includes those systems in general use for high end applications and is based on the LINPACK benchmark. The latest edition suggests that there may be a renaissance in American supercomputing. The top place has been held by the Summit system at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee since June 2018 and second place since November 2019 by Sierra at the Lawrence National Laboratory in California. The ranking was compiled by Erich Strohmaier and Horst Simon of NERSC/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Jack Dongarra of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Hans Meuer of the University of Mannheim, Germany.

QS Rankings Show New Regional Leaders

19 June 2019

QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) have published the 2020 edition of their World University Rankings. Although the very top of the rankings shows little movement there are some interesting changes at the regional level. The methodology of these rankings has remained fairly stable since they began in 2004. There is a forty per cent weighting for a survey of academic opinion concerning research quality and ten per cent for a survey of business opinion about the quality of university graduates. Both are drawn from a variety of sources. In addition, twenty per cent each goes to citations per faculty and faculty student ratio and five per cent each to international students and international faculty.

Al Fanar Media Lists Accredited Arab Universities

14 June 2019

Al Fanar Media has reviewed the process of international accreditation of universities in the Middle East and has published a list of accredited programs.

RAEX Global Competitiveness Forum in Moscow Brings Together Academia and Employers

RAEX International Group of Rating Agencies hosted the 7th International University Forum “Global Competitiveness” 5th June 2019 in Moscow. The Forum, brought together heads of top Russian universities, international higher education experts, employers, and governmental officials. The Forum’s key events included presentations of the new release of the annual Russia’s 100 Best Universities rankings and the study of HEIs and schools with a strong focus on digitalisation entitled “Human Resources for Digital Economy”. The latter included Russia’s first subject rankings of information technologies. IREG Observatory was represented at the Forum by Waldemar Siwinski, Vice President.

IREG Observatory welcomes new members

The General Assembly of IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence voted to admit three new members.

Patents Ranking Reveals Progress in Middle East and East Asia

06 June 2019

The National Academy of Inventors is an association of universities, research institutes and individual members and fellows that was established in 2010 to encourage invention and innovation. In cooperation with the Intellectual Property Owners’ Association it produces an annual list of universities granted US utility patents. This is a limited view of the world of innovation but it does reveal some interesting trends and patterns. Slightly more than two thirds of the universities or university systems in the top 100 are located in the USA. South Korea has the second largest number, followed by Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan.

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