São Paulo University drops in QS international ranking, but Brazil increases participation

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The University of São Paulo (USP), generally considered Brazil’s finest, fell six positions in the QS Quacquarelli Symonds international ranking, from 115th to 121st position. The negative result was mainly driven by the ratio between teachers and students, according to the survey.

On the other hand, 5 Brazilian nstitutions joined the international ranking for the first time and 8 others achieved the score required to be included in the list. Brazil increased its share from 14 to 27 universities among the ranked institutions.

The survey, released on Tuesday, June 8, shows that 5 Brazilian universities joined its world ranking for the first time: UFJF (Federal University of Juiz de Fora), UFPel (Federal University of Pelotas), PUCPR (Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná), UFPB (Federal University of Paraíba) and UFG (Federal University of Goiás).

Another 8 joined the ranking for improving criteria such as academic reputation, reputation among employers, number of teachers and students, among others. As such, there was an increase in the number of Brazilian universities, from 14 to 27, leading Brazil to become the Latin American country with the most institutions in the evaluation, athough none of them are in the top 100.

“In fact, we expanded the list and found 5 more Brazilian universities that meet our inclusion criteria. The good news is that there are more Brazilian universities in the ranking. Of the universities presented, 3 improved, 4 decreased, 5 are new, and the other 15 remained stable,” said Simona Bizzozero, QS’ communications director.

In this edition, the QS World University Rankings 2022 increased the number of institutions ranked to 1,300, 145 more than in the previous edition.

According to the organizers, the results show the performance of 14.7 million academic works. A total of 96 million citations were counted from these papers, and 130,000 professors and 75,000 employers were interviewed.

Investment in research

Ben Sowter, QS research director, mentions university expansion and greater production in research to improve Brazil’s rates.

Sowter explains that the evaluation of a university also entails the performance recorded in the past 4 years in the list. It is unknown whether the difficult moment currently experienced by Brazilian public institutions, with funding cuts, may influence future rankings.

“We are fully aware of the tragic impact of the pandemic around the world. Some countries were more affected than others, and Brazil is one of them. Our solidarity and thoughts are with the whole population of Brazil,” says the research director.

The data alert to scientific production in the country. According to QS, 17 of the 27 universities analyzed presented worse grades, year after year, in the item that analyzes the impact of research. In this edition, no Brazilian university was listed among the 300 best in the world in terms of research.

Bizzozero mentions the need to increase openings in higher education.

“The phenomenon of failing universities is not only Brazilian. Universities require substantial investment and excellent governance and leadership to thrive. Brazil has a mission to provide greater access to higher education for the younger population, especially the underrepresented. We believe that Brazil needs more universities, not fewer, to meet the growing demand for higher education,” says Bizzozero.

University of São Paulo

The QS analysis points out that, despite the drop, USP garners 90.1 points out of 100 possible in the academic reputation analysis. Among employers, it scored 71.3 points.

What prevented these indices from standing out was the drop in the faculty/student ratio, where USP fell 42 places to 688th.

The best in the world and in Latin America

The best university in the QS 2022 world ranking continues to be the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), for the 10th consecutive time. Oxford University moved up to 2nd place in the survey, something that had not occurred since 2006. Stanford and Cambridge Universities share 3rd place.

In Latin America, Brazil is the country with the most universities (27) in the ranking, overtaking Argentina and Mexico, each with 24.

Source: G1

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