Best Universities of France

An assessment carried out by AllAboutUni reveals that France has a relatively low density of the World’s Top universities compared to other countries in the world. AllAboutUni is an independent, global and interactive websites where visitors can obtain information about universities (global rankings, student reviews, university news and campus pictures).

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) is produced by the Institute of Higher Education at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Several indicators of academic or research performance are used to establish the ranking, these include highly cited researchers, articles indexed in major citation indices and staff winning Nobel Prizes.

The World’s Top-500 universities (2008) are mainly located in Europe (n=210; 40%), the Americas (n=190; 40%) and the Asian/Pacific region (n=100; 20%) There are 23 universities located in France, representing 11% of the European universities in the ARWU ranking.

France has a population of 64 million inhabitants and the eighth largest economy in the world and fourth third in Western Europe (in terms of Gross Domestic Product), after USA, China, Japan, India, Germany, United Kingdom and Russia.

Universities in France are predominantly public institutions. Interestingly, the best students attend the ‘Grandes Ecoles’ ['Grand Schools'] (a higher education establishment outside the mainstream framework of the public universities system). Whilst the universities are open to all students who finish their high school education (with a ‘Baccalauréat’), the ‘Grandes Ecoles’ require an additional entrance exam which is highly competitive.

In comparison to French universities, the ‘Grandes Ecoles’ are relatively small institutions. For example, the University of Paris 06 (ranked 42rd in the world) has 30,000 students and the Ecole Normale Superieure Paris (ranked 73rd in the world) has 2,000 students.

The Top-5 universities in France are: 1. University of Paris 06 (ranked 42nd in the world), 2. University of Paris 11 (49th), 3. Ecole Normale Superieure Paris (73rd), 4. University of Paris 07 (101-151) and University of Strasbourg (101-151). Overall, the ‘Grandes Ecoles’ only represent 5 of the top-23 universities in France and there is a very high representation of universities located in Paris (9 out of 23).

In order to make inter-country comparisons, AllAboutUni.com calculates the number of universities in the World’s Top-500 per million inhabitants. The overall number of universities per million inhabitants is 0.5 for industrialised countries. An earlier assessment found that small countries in Western Europe (Sweden (1.2), Finland (1.1) and Switzerland (1.0)) and New Zealand (1.2) have the highest number of universities per million inhabitants.

The number of universities in the World’s Top-500 universities that are located in France is 0.4 per million inhabitants. Other large industrialized countries have the following figures: Australia (0.7), the Netherlands (0.7), United Kingdom (0.7), Canada (0.6), United States (0.5), Germany (0.5), France (0.4), Italy (0.4), Japan (0.2), South Korea (0.2) and Spain (0.2). This means that France performance is relatively low compared to other industrialised countries.

At the top of the ARWU ranking, there are only three French universities in the World’s Top-100 universities. This compares to 54 for the US, 11 for the UK, 6 for Germany, 4 each for Canada, Japan and Sweden, and 3 for Australia and Switzerland. All other countries have fewer than 3 universities in the World’s Top-100 universities.

In conclusion, France performs poorly when its universities are compared to other industrialised countries in the world. Its best university is only ranked 42nd in the world and there are only three universities in the World’s Top-100 universities. Looking at the density of top universities per million inhabitants also reveals a poor performance compared to other industrialised countries.

Where are Top Universities in the World?

An assessment of the World’s Top-500 universities carried out by AllAboutUni found that a country’s top university is usually located in the capital city. AllAboutUni is an independent, global and interactive website where visitors can obtain information about universities (global rankings, student reviews, university news and campus pictures).

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) is produced by the Institute of Higher Education at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Several indicators of academic or research performance are used to establish the ranking, these include highly cited researchers, articles indexed in major citation indices and staff winning Nobel Prizes.

The World’s Top-500 universities (2008) include a total of 38 countries. The AllAboutUni.com analysis looked at the top university in each country and whether it was located in the capital city. If there was more than one top university in a country and one of these is located in the capital city, the top university was considered to be located in the capital city. This was the case for Italy, where there are three top-universities (all ranked 101-151) and one of these is located in Rome (University Roma – La Sapienza). The analysis revealed that the top university was located in the capital city in 25 (66%) of the 38 countries.

The analysis was repeated for small and large countries, where large countries were defined as having a population of over 25 million inhabitants. This analysis revealed that in small countries, the top university was located in the capital city in 80% of countries (16 out of 20) and in large countries it was 50% (9 out of 18 countries).

In the small countries, the four countries where the top university was not located in the capital city were: Belgium (the top university was the University of Antwerp), Israel (University of Jerusalem), the Netherlands (University of Utrecht) and Switzerland (University of Zurich). In all other 16 small countries the top university was located in the capital city.

In the large countries, there are a number of good examples of the top university not being located in the capital city. In the United States, the top university (Harvard University) is located in Boston, Massachusetts, and not in Washington DC. In the United Kingdom, the top university (University of Cambridge) is not located in London and in Germany the top university (University of Munich) is not located in Berlin.

The reasons for this general finding go beyond the scope of the AllAboutUni.com analysis. However, factors like the economical, political, historical and even the religious development of a country will probably play an important role in determining the location of a country’s top-university. Generally speaking, these factors will favour the capital city and we found this to be particularly the case for small countries.

In conclusion, the AllAboutUni.com assessment found that top universities are usually located in the capital city (66% of all countries). This association was much stronger for small countries, where 80% of countries had their top university located in the capital city.

Higher Education Loans: Paves the Way for a Better Future

It is said that “failure is the stepping stone to success”. Education is an intrinsic part of your overall development, but for the same you have to incur expenses. it may be that you are not financially stable and  you might not want to pursue higher studies. Do not let trivial matters like financial crunch to doom your career. It is for students like you that the loan market is offering higher education loans.

In the present, it is impossible to alienate money from important matters. If you want something, then you are required to spend some. In the absence of finance, you will not be in a position to undertake education of your choice. Higher education loans are just designed for individuals like you. With the aid of these loans, you can take care of the various expenses such as paying admission fees, tuition fees, hostel accommodation, purchasing study materials, books, and computers and even to tackle personal expenses. Thus, it can be said that the loans present a one stop solution to all your educational needs.

Further, these loans are categorized in to secured and unsecured form. Secured form of the loans can be availed only by pledging collateral. if you do not own any asset, your parents or guardians can fill  I n for you by attaching their asset. This option of the loans is perfect to borrow a larger amount. On the other hand, unsecured form of the loans is just the opposite. There is no need to pledge any collateral. This option of the loans is ideal to borrow a limited amount.

The terms and condition for the loans is very lenient. First of all, you are not at all required to make repayment after availing the loans. Instead, you can complete your education and after getting a suitable job, you can start repaying. The interest rate levied too is comparatively low and depends a lot on your financial circumstances and repaying capability.

Higher education loans can be sourced easily from banks; financial institutions etc. if you want to obtain the loans without facing too many complicacies and hassles, prefer to apply online. Always look for the loans that come with feasible terms and conditions so that you get the best of the education.

Chiang Mai University Online Tefl Scholarship Contest

Chiang Mai University Online TEFL Scholarship Contest

The Chiang Mai University Online TEFL Program is pleased to announce the availability of two scholarships for free tuition to our Online TEFL Certification Program.

This course has been entirely authored by the experts at the Language Institute.  The content is similar to that of the 120-hour, on campus course but the online curriculum delves deeper into the theory, philosphy and psychology of effictive language teaching.

This program offers the convenience of learning at  your own pace from anywhere with an internet connection and can be completed in as little as two weeks or can be taken slowly over six months.

All interested applicants must submit an essay of 300 words or more which addresses the following question.

Why do you want to teach?

All essays should be pasted onto the (Your Message) section of the (Contact Page) on the Chiang Mai University Language Institute web site.

Just visit us at www.teflcmu.com, click on contact and paste your essay.

The deadline for submission is December 31, 2008

The scholarship winners will be announced during the second week in January 2009.

The Scholarships will be awarded to the two best essays.

Please feel free to be creative, funny, serious personal or academic in your approach to this essay.

The scholarships will cover all tuition for the course and certification upon successful completion.

All successful graduates will receive their Chiang Mai University Online TEFL Certification by mail.

Any further questions can be directed to the Chiang Mai Online TEFL Team by using the contact page on the web site.

Good Luck.

We are looking forward to your essays.

Chiang Mai University TEFL Program