Young University Rankings 2017: Millennial universities

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France has the most world-leading universities that were founded in the 21st century, according to an analysis of the 2017 Times Higher Education Young University Rankings.

Seven Gallic institutions founded from 2000 to the present make the new table of the 200 best universities aged 50 years or under – more than any other nation.

France’s success in the “Millennials” group is due to a series of mergers that took place in the past five years, following the demerging of institutions in the 1970s. Two French ComUE – associations of universities and higher education institutions – also make the table, following new laws that came into effect in 2015.

Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, which was also created from a merger of two institutions in 2009, is the leading Millennial university in the table, ranked joint ninth overall, followed by the University of Luxembourg at 11th.

Institutions in Belgium, Finland, Cyprus, Japan, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Brazil, South Africa and the UK are also home to some of the youngest universities in the world.

While the Millennial universities generally have low levels of income and research productivity compared with their older counterparts, they are the strongest age group when it comes to producing internationally co-authored research, when compared with “Generation X” (1967-1985) and “Generation Y” (1986-1999) universities, as well the cohort of institutions founded in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.

They also outperform every other group bar Generation X on citation impact.

 Millennial universities

Note: ‘Millennials’ are those institutions that have been founded since the turn of the century, from 2000 to today.