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Austrian universities slip in Shanghai rankings

The ranking of Austrian universities decreased slightly compared to last year's list published by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Published: 18 August 2014 15:28 CEST

Austrian universities slip in Shanghai rankings

Architecture students in Vienna. Photo: APA/Fohringer

Instead of seven there were only six Austrian universities listed among the 500 best universities.

The highest ranking was achieved by the University of Vienna at number 151, leaving its rating unchanged from 2013. Judged on individual subjects, the University of Vienna improved its ranking for mathematics, coming 36th out of 200 universities.

However, the rankings are sharply criticized, especially in Europe, where experts believe the criteria are biased against European universities.

The Shanghai rankings are compiled on the basis of six measures: the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel prizes and Fields Medals; the number of highly cited researchers; the number of articles published in Nature and Science; the number of articles indexed in the Thomson Reuters Science Citation Index Expanded and the Social Sciences Citation Index; and per capita performance.

Harvard University in the US came in top, followed by Stanford University. Ranked third is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The highest-ranked non-US institutions this year were Britain's Cambridge and Oxford universities, in fifth and ninth places respectively. The best university in German-speaking countries is the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich, ranked 19th.

In general, Austrian higher education institutions ranked in the middle and lower end of the list. Vienna's Medical University and the University of Innsbruck made it into the rankings, between 201 and 302.

The University of Graz, the Medical University of Graz and the Vienna University of Technology were listed in the group between 303 and 401. The Medical University of Innsbruck dropped out of the rankings this year.

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Inquiry calls for free after-school care for 6-9 year-olds in Sweden

“If this reform is implemented, after-school recreation centers will be accessible to the children who may have the greatest need for the activities,” said Kerstin Andersson, who was appointed to lead a government inquiry into expanding access to after-school recreation by the former Social Democrat government.

More than half a million primary- and middle-school-aged children spend a large part of their school days and holidays in after-school centres.

But the right to after-school care is not freely available to all children. In most municipalities, it is conditional on the parent’s occupational status of working or studying. Thus, attendance varies and is significantly lower in areas where unemployment is high and family finances weak.

In this context, the previous government formally began to inquire into expanding rights to leisure. The report was recently handed over to Sweden’s education minister, Lotta Edholm, on Monday.

Andersson proposed that after-school activities should be made available free of charge to all children between the ages of six and nine in the same way that preschool has been for children between the ages of three and five. This would mean that children whose parents are unemployed, on parental leave or long-term sick leave will no longer be excluded.

“The biggest benefit is that after-school recreation centres will be made available to all children,” Andersson said. “Today, participation is highest in areas with very good conditions, while it is lower in sparsely populated areas and in areas with socio-economic challenges.”

Enforcing this proposal could cause a need for about 10,200 more places in after-school centre, would cost the state just over half a billion kronor a year, and would require more adults to work in after-school centres.

Andersson recommends recruiting staff more broadly, and not insisting that so many staff are specialised after-school activities teachers, or fritidspedagod.

“The Education Act states that qualified teachers are responsible for teaching, but that other staff may participate,” Andersson said. “This is sometimes interpreted as meaning that other staff may be used, but preferably not’. We propose that recognition be given to so-called ‘other staff’, and that they should be given a clear role in the work.”

She suggested that people who have studied in the “children’s teaching and recreational programmes” at gymnasium level, people who have studied recreational training, and social educators might be used.

“People trained to work with children can contribute with many different skills. Right now, it might be an uncertain work situation for many who work for a few months while the employer is looking for qualified teachers”, Andersson said.

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