2 Rhode Island Universities Among Best In World, New List Says

Two Rhode Island universities are among the 500 best in the world, according to a recent ranking from Time designed to help students understand where they’re most likely to get degrees that help them achieve extraordinary success after graduation.

Rhode Island universities cited by Time and their rank in the world are Brown University at 44th in the world and the University of Rhode Island at 441st.

See also: University Of Rhode Island Breaks Ground For 2 Residence Halls

The higher education debate often falsely pits diversity against meritocracy, suggesting universities must choose between student identity and quality, but the core issue may be wealth’s role in admissions, Time said. The real question is how to design admissions policies that are both more meritocratic and increase socioeconomic diversity, the news outlet said.

See also: Here Are The Top Online College Programs In RI

Time said the tension is reflected in its new ranking of the World’s Top Universities, which emphasizes the extent to which students achieve extraordinary success — for example, in patenting innovations or rising to leadership roles in business. But the analysis also reveals what Time called “an uncomfortable reality”: These top universities are primarily accessible to children from wealthy families in most countries, limiting their socioeconomic diversity.

Time said its research using big data to study the outcomes of millions of college students over time underscored that in the United States. While fewer than 1% of Americans attend the 12 “Ivy-Plus” college (the eight Ivies, plus Stanford, MIT, Duke and UChicago), these alumni account for more than 13% of the top 0.1% of earners, a quarter of U.S. senators, half of Rhodes scholars, and three-fourths of recent Supreme Court justices appointed in the last half-century.

See also: University Of Rhode Island Releases Results Of 2024 Snap Campus Survey

“These institutions don’t merely select talented students but directly change their life trajectories,” Time said. “Comparing waitlisted students who were accepted vs. rejected from these institutions essentially by chance, we find that those who attend an Ivy-Plus college are far more likely to reach the top 1% of the income distribution, work at prestigious firms, and achieve success in many other dimensions. Selective colleges have extraordinary influence.”

See also: Brown University Rejects Trump's Invite To Join Federal Compact

The top 20 universities worldwide on Time’s list are:

1. University of Oxford, United Kingdom (public)
2. Yale University, United States (private)
3. Stanford University, United States (private)
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States (private)
5. The University of Chicago, United States (private)
6. Harvard University, United States (private)
7. University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (public)
8. Imperial College of London, United Kingdom (public)
9. University of Michigan, United States (public)
10. University of Pennsylvania, United States (private)
11. Princeton University, United States (private)
12. Johns Hopkins University, United States (private)
13. California Institute of Technology, United States (private)
14. Duke University, United States (private)
15. Cornell University, United States (private)
16. The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (public)

See also: Johnson & Wales 7th Most Innovative Regional University, North