Government cuts affect U.S. universities’ ‘world reputation’

Harvard University's Canteen

Huff Post College (2013) Most Prestigious Universities: Times Higher Education’s 2013 World Reputation Rankings, March 5

The Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings employs an invitation-only academic opinion survey to provide a list of the top 100 most powerful global university brands.
The Times Higher Education publicly states that the ‘reputation league table is based on nothing more than subjective judgement,‘ and of course the rankings will be strongly influenced by the sample that the THE invites to participate. (Click here for the methodology.)

I and many others have criticized the way university rankings are done. See for instance:

Usher, A. (2103) The paradox of university rankings Higher Education Strategy Associates, March 4

http://www.tonybates.ca/2013/01/29/another-way-to-rank-universities/

Nevertheless, Phil Baty, the editor of Times Higher Education, notes that reputation of universities in the U.S. and U.K. is declining. Pointing out that the three U.S. universities to drop out of the top 50 are all publicly funded, Baty writes:

“Spending cuts are clearly having a serious negative effect on the nation’s standing and ability to compete in an increasingly competitive global market. Meanwhile, East Asian institutions are enjoying serious government investment and rapidly rising prestige, which in turn are driving their knowledge and innovation economies. This is bad news for US competitiveness.“

University of Toronto ranks 16, and UBC ranks 31.

The top 10: