Switzerland has come out high in another international ranking of universities. The Universitas 21 analysis puts Switzerland in second place among 50 countries for higher education systems.

The ranking aims to look at a country’s whole system of higher education, and not individual institutions. 2016 is the fifth year the ranking has been published, it places countries in order based on four separate criteria; resources, environment, connectivity and output, and gives each nation an overall rating.

Switzerland came sixth for resources, eighth for environment, first for connectivity and sixth for output. The United States leads the ranking, with Denmark placed in third position, followed by the UK and then Sweden.

Each area of assessment criteria is made up of detailed smaller rankings. Switzerland took first place in the connectivity area as “connectivity within the nation and externally is high”, according to a statement by the Universitas 21 network. The level of knowledge transfer between universities and companies was seen to be high, and the number of joint publications with industry also played a role.

An additional ranking took into account economic development in the country to make an adjusted set of results. After “levels of GDP per capita” were factored in, Switzerland was ranked in twelfth place.

The ranking was carried out by researchers at the University of Melbourne’s Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research.

swissinfo.ch