Choosing a good university for higher education solves most of our problems pertaining to career planning. Universities that are top ranked in the world are generally preferred for higher education. Rankings are awarded to universities on the basis of quality of education provided, among other factors. The criteria for defining what quality means can vary from country to country which is why the list of top 10 universities in the world varies from place to place. Several lists which categorize universities is provided in the paragraphs below. A separate list for courses like engineering, medicine and MBA is also presented in this article. The importance of higher education and various efficient methods of imparting it to students are formulated at the best universities, which is why these are placed in the top/elite club.

List of Top 10 Universities in the World

Here is a list of top 10 Universities in the world for year 2010. Rankings given to universities change with different sources. These rankings are taken from the source called ’4icu’. Different sources use a wide range of parameters in order to judge the quality of a particular university.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the MIT is ranked No.1 university for the year 2010 as per the ’4icu’ rankings. The 68 ha. campus of MIT houses a college and 5 schools which altogether have 32 departments. For the 2009 – 10 Fall term, 4,232 undergraduates and 6,152 graduates took admissions for different courses in MIT. The university has produced 75 Nobel laureates till date; 31 ‘MacArthur Fellows’ and 47 recipients of ‘National Medal of Science’ are also from the MIT.

Stanford: This private university was established in 1891; the university is actually named as Leland Stanford Junior university and enrolls 8,300 graduates & 6,800 undergraduates every year. Students from the university are placed in reputed companies like Google, Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard to name a few. Different schools included in the university are ‘Stanford School of Medicine’, ‘Stanford Law School’, ‘Stanford School of Engineering’ and ‘Stanford Graduate School of Business’.

Harvard: Established in 1636, Harvard University is one of the members of Ivy League. Every year, 7181 students take admission for graduate programs and 14,044 other for postgraduate programs in Harvard University. Harvard is the oldest institution in USA for higher studies. The university’s financial endowment is higher than any other in the world. The September, 2009 figures for this financial endowment were USD 26 billion.

Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Moxico: Based in Mexico City, the ‘Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico’ or ‘National Autonomous University of Mexico’ is the largest university in America in terms of student population. For the academic year 2008-09, 305,969 students took admission for various courses in the university. Justo Sierra founded this university on 22nd September, 1910. The campus of this university is declared as a World Heritage site.

University of California, Berkeley: The University of California offers in all 300 graduate and undergraduate programs. Set in a huge campus of 2,692 ha. the university enrolls 25,530 and 10,313 students for graduate and postgraduate programs respectively. As per the Academic Ranking of World Universities, this institution is ranked 3rd in the world. The University of California, Berkeley has produced 65 Nobel laureates and prominent leaders placed in companies like the Google, Apple, Inc., Adobe Systems, Intel, Sun Microsystems and many more.

Peking University: Founded as the ‘Imperial Capital University’ in the year 1898, Peking University is located in Beijing. It is the first university to be formally established in China. The university is credited with producing prominent thinkers who laid the foundation of modern China. Students enrolled for graduate and postgraduate programs in this university are 15,128 and 15,039 respectively.

University of Pennsylvania: In terms of higher education, the University of Pennsylvania is 4th oldest in the U.S. Member of the Ivy League, this university was founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1740. Different schools of this university which offer a variety of programs are the medical school, business school, dental school, law school and also other departments which offer humanities and social science programs.

Cornell University: Cornell University is located in Ithaca, New York and was founded by Ezra Cornell in 1865. Every year, 20,633 students take admission for different courses in this university. A variety of courses spanning from agriculture, liberal arts, engineering to hotel administration are offered by the university. There are 7 graduate divisions and same number of undergraduate colleges in Cornell University.
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