World university rankings show that good higher education can be a bargain

Anna Bawden

The latest world league table could spark ideas among UK students of applying abroad to highly ranked universities that charge low — or no — fees.

British students looking for any way to avoid £9,000 tuition fees payable at most U.K. universities and still attend a top-flight institution could do worse than look at Trinity College, Dublin. The 400-year-old institution, ideally located to enjoy the “craic” of the fair city's nightlife, is ranked 65th in the world — just behind the London School of Economics — in the latest league table of the world's top universities, published on Sunday. But it does not charge tuition fees to students from the U.K.

QS, the international career and education network that compiled the latest world rankings, has for the first time compared tuition costs for all 600 universities. And in the top 200, many have fees below England's top whack of £9,000 a year.

So what are the realistic options for students willing to pack their trunk to save on the debts? Dutch institutions are worth a look. Amsterdam university (ranked 63rd), offers numerous undergraduate degrees taught in English, and charges EU students just €1,713 a year in tuition fees. Also among the top 100 universities in the world are Utrecht (80th) and Leiden (88th).

For those happy to go further afield, Hong Kong has three universities in the top 50, all offering a good range of degrees taught in English. The University of Hong Kong is impressively ranked at number 22, with the Chinese University of Hong Kong at 37 and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology at number 40. Fees at the University of Hong Kong are £5,480 a year and £7,829 at the other two, and all three offer a variety of scholarships.

Outdoor types may find Nordic institutions attractive. But the universities of Copenhagen (52nd), Helsinki (89th), Uppsala (83rd) and Lund (86th) do not offer degrees taught in English. Though any would-be undergraduate who happens to be bilingual in Danish, Finnish or Swedish could be laughing in both their languages. ETH Zurich (18th) and Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne (35th), overlooking Lake Geneva, are among the cheapest fee-charging institutions in the league table and are a good option for those interested in studying for an English degree (other subjects are taught in German and French respectively). Fees are just 580 Swiss Francs (£435) a semester for both bachelor and masters degrees — foreign students pay the same as domestic undergraduates.

In contrast, U.S. universities, which dominate the top 20, are likely to be beyond the reach of most students, unless they're lucky enough to get a scholarship. Most of the U.S. universities listed charge $38,000-$40,000 (£23,400-£24,600) a year, which does put the £9,000 fees of many U.K. institutions in a different light. “At undergraduate level, all of the U.K. institutions listed are comparatively good value,” says Ben Sowter, head of research at QS.

U.K. universities fare well in this year's QS rankings, with 54 in the top 600. Of these, over half are ranked in the top 200 and there are nine in the top 50. The rankings are based on research quality, graduate employability, teaching and how international the faculties and students are.

Cambridge this year pips Harvard to the top spot for the second year in a row, while Oxford, Imperial and University College London come fifth, sixth and seventh respectively. U.S. institutions continue to dominate, with six universities in the top 10 and 20 in the top 50. But whereas U.K. institutions, including Cambridge, tend to do well in terms of how international their students and faculties are, Harvard, like most U.S. universities, “struggles to compete” in this respect, Mr. Sowter says.

However, the tables show that if the listings were ranked according to employers' preferences, Harvard would come top, Oxford second and Cambridge third. In fourth place, come Manchester (29th in the overall table), Warwick (50th) and the LSE (64th), in equal place with Melbourne and the American Ivy League institutions MIT, Yale, Stanford and Berkeley. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2011