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The most innovative universities in the world 2018

North American universities account for nearly half of the list of the most innovative universities in the world, according to the latest Reuters ranking

    Seeta Bhardwa's avatar

    Seeta Bhardwa

    Editor, THE Student
    October 17 2018
    most innovative universities

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    North American universities dominate the list of the most innovative universities in the world, according to data collected by Clarivate Analytics in partnership with Reuters. 

    The fourth annual ranking of the world’s most innovative universities shows that 48 North American universities feature among the top 100 – 46 from the USA and two from Canada. 

    Harvard University have claimed the top three spots, respectively.

    Some 27 European universities are featured in the table, with Imperial College London at number eight. 

    Asia is represented by 23 universities, with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) just missing the top 10, coming in at number 11.

    The list is based on empirical data, including patent filings from Derwent Innovation and research paper citations from the Web of Science, to identify the universities that are most successful in advancing science, inventing new technologies and powering new markets and industries.


    The 50 most innovative universities in the world 

    Innovation Rank 2019

    University

    Country/region

    1

    Stanford University

    USA

    2

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    USA

    3

    Harvard University

    USA

    4

    University of Pennsylvania

    USA

    5

    University of Washington

    USA

    6

    University of Texas System

    USA

    7

    KU Leuven

    Belgium

    8

    Imperial College London

    UK

    9

    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

    USA

    10

    Vanderbilt University

    USA

    11

    Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

    South Korea

    12

    École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

    Switzerland

    13

    Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)

    South Korea

    14

    University of California System

    USA

    15

    University of Southern California

    USA

    16

    Cornell University

    USA

    17

    Duke University

    USA

    18

    University of Cambridge

    UK

    19

    Johns Hopkins University

    USA

    20

    The University of Tokyo

    Japan

    21

    California Institute of Technology

    USA

    22

    Osaka University

    Japan

    23

    University of Michigan System

    USA

    24

    Northwestern University

    USA

    25

    University of Wisconsin System

    USA

    26

    Kyoto University

    Japan

    27

    University of Minnesota System

    USA

    28

    University of Illinois System

    USA

    29

    Georgia Institute of Technology

    USA

    30

    University of Utah

    USA

    31

    University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

    Germany

    32

    Ohio State University

    USA

    33

    Columbia University

    USA

    34

    Seoul National University

    South Korea

    35

    University of Toronto

    Canada

    36

    Tohoku University

    Japan

    37

    University of Pittsburgh

    USA

    38

    Yale University

    USA

    39

    Sungkyunkwan University

    South Korea

    40

    University of Oxford

    UK

    41

    University of Colorado System

    USA

    42

    Tufts University

    USA

    43

    Baylor College of Medicine

    USA

    44

    Tsinghua University

    China

    45

    Technical University of Munich

    Germany

    46

    Kyushu University

    Japan

    47

    Tokyo Institute of Technology

    Japan

    48

    UK

    49

    ETH Zurich

    Switzerland

    50

    Purdue University System

    USA

    Read more: see the full list of top 100 universities most innovative universities 


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