Center for Security and Emerging Technology January 28, 2022
In a CSET Report researchers at Georgetown University assess the quality of universities in China and the United States based on their performance in two well-regarded rankings of global universities. They found Chinese universities have steadily moved up the rankings over time, driven largely by increases in research productivity and a series of state-sponsored higher education initiatives. Between 2010 and 2020, the number of U.S. universities that appeared in the top 500 on at least one global ranking dropped from 160 to 137, while the number that appeared on both rankings fell from 102 to 82. Ranked U.S. universities produce more PhDs and bachelor’s graduates than ranked Chinese universities. Still, more than half of China’s PhDs study at ranked universities. In the United States, ranked universities also play an outsized role in the STEM talent pipeline. Additional research into the quality of undergraduate instruction and doctoral research, and the popularity of STEM at China’s top universities would shed more light on the strengths and weaknesses of the country’s talent pipeline…read more.