Caltech Dethroned: Now “Only” Second Best University in World

After five straight years of ranking as the best university in the world by a prestigious education magazine, Pasadena’s Caltech has been usurped by Oxford University — the first non-American school to ever be number one on the World University Rankings list.

The rankings, released annually by Times Higher Education since 2004, announced that Oxford — the oldest university in the English-speaking world founded in 1096 — has overtaken the California Institute of Technology as the top-ranked school in the world.

According to the Times Higher Education, Oxford’s total income and research income is increasing faster than its staff members, its research has been more prominent and it has been more successful at attracting international talent. However, Caltech didn’t drop further and is still ranked as the second best university in the world.

“Any university is only as good as the academics it can attract. The best academics attract other top academics as well as smart early career academics,” said Louise Richardson to Study International. “They attract the best students and the most competitive research funding, so it really is a virtuous circle.”

Caltech, a small private school in Pasadena founded in 1891, is known for its world-class research in the STEM fields. The school is funded by prominent government agencies, such as NASA, National Science Foundation, Department of Health, Department of Energy and Human Services and the Department of Defense.

The university also manages numerous observatories and science centers along with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Besides Caltech being dethroned, the list did not change much from last year. Stanford University came in third follow by the University of Cambridge, another famous school in the United Kingdom. Fifth was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology followed by its neighbor Harvard, the only Ivy League school to make the list.