By Adam Clark | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on October 25, 2016 at 1:06 PM, updated October 25, 2016 at 1:28 PM
PRINCETON — A new ranking of the world’s best universities places both Princeton and Rutgers universities in the top 100.
Princeton cracked the top 10 in U.S. News and World Report’s 2017 Best Global Universities rankings, earning the eighth spot on the list. Rutgers tied with the University of Florida for 82nd.
While Princeton improved in the rankings from 13th last year, Rutgers dropped from 60th.
The rankings cover the top 1,000 institutions from 65 different countries and are heavily based on the universities’ reputation for academic research both regionally and globally. Also among the dozen factors considered are the number of publications and citations produced the university.
“United States universities do especially well in the Best Global Universities rankings because they place an enormous emphasis on academic research,” said Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News
American universities claimed the top five spots on the list, with Harvard University claiming the title as the best university in the world.
When I went to Rutgers more than 40 years ago, it had a decent academic reputation with a few areas of true academic distinction, and was a true bargain in terms of tuition cost. Since then academic excellence has ceased to be a priority and has been supplanted by a dumbed down academic program more in keeping with the school’s political and social agenda. worse, the school has continued to harbor illusions that big-time athletic prominence is a worthy and attainable goal and has spent millions pursuing this misguided pipe dream. Tuition is still lower than most private schools but Rutgers is no longer a good value for what it delivers. Putting it in the top 100 globally seems extremely generous given the mediocrity I have seen first-hand.