From Michael Steer, mbs@ncsu.edu

The
Institute of Higher Education of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University compiles the most authoritative world wide ranking of universities known as the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). ARWU ranks the top 500 universities world wide using data obtained from a large number of sources. The results have often been cited by The Economist magazine and the Wall Street Journal in ranking universities of the world. Part of the prestige of these rankings is that they use totally objective data. As with all rankings one of the primary criticisms of the ranking is its bias towards the natural Sciences, over other subjects. This has been addressed this year by the release of rankings in broad subject areas. For the first time in 2007 the Shanghai Jiao Tong rankings have considered broad fields. These broad fields are Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Engineering / Technology and Computer Sciences, Life and Agriculture Sciences, Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy, and Social Sciences. Engineering and Computer Science at NCSU was ranked as #22 among all universities world wide. Other universities in the US Southeast that have engineering programs were ranked in the top 100 include Georgia Teach at #7, Duke University at #50, Virginia Tech at #47, University of Florida at #30. Clemson is not ranked in the top 100.

The full rankings can be found at http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/ranking.htm