QS Quacquarelli Symonds —the global higher education analyst— released its 11th annual list of Latin America's best universities, showing that
Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru (PUCP) —the country's highest-ranked university— has risen to 13th in the region, thus registering a year-on-year jump of three places.
Its rise is the most noteworthy highlight of a promisingly progressive year for Peruvian higher education: no country with more than ten universities has recorded a higher proportion of jumps than Peru (50% of 20 universities trending upwards).
PUCP's upwardly mobile performance is based on its outstanding reputation among both academics and employers surveyed by QS. It scores 97.2/100 (10th in Latin America) for Employer Reputation, and 94.7/100 (11th) for Academic Reputation.
Its rise is also explained by the university's high levels of international visibility. It ranks 23rd for Web Impact, achieving a score of 80.3/100.
In addition, it ranks 60th in the region for QS's measure of teaching resources (Faculty/Student Ratio) and 70th in Latin America for Citations per Paper.
However, Peru's best-performing research institution is Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, which ranks 11th in Latin America for Citations per Paper with a score of 98.6/100.
Also in the continent's top 100 from Peru are: Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (54th, up from 56th), Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (joint-73rd, up from 77th), and Universidad del Pacifico (89th, up from 95th).
It should be pointed out that, of the countries with more than ten ranked institutions, Peru and Ecuador make the most significant progress, with 50% and 47% of their ranked institutions improving their position.
"For Peru, there are clear signs that its universities are making progress towards becoming more regionally-competitive," Ben Sowter, Director of Research at QS, expressed.
"In particular, with five of its universities achieving a top-50 score for our Employer Reputation metric, there is evidence that Peru's best universities are cultivating graduates able to succeed in the workplace," he added.
On the other hand, Sowter noted that, with no Peruvian university receiving a top-100 score for Papers per Faculty, improving research productivity remains a major national barrier to improvement.
Latin America
For the fourth year in a row, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile has been named Latin America's top university.
Achieving perfect scores from both academics and employers, it outranks Brazil's Universidade de São Paulo —Latin America's highest-ranking public university— and its compatriot, Universidad de Chile.
Reflecting the maturity of an evaluation exercise now in its eleventh year, there are no new entries into the top ten.
However, driven by a perfect score for the Employer Reputation indicator, Universidad de Los Andes rises to 5th, replacing Brazil's Universidade Estadual de Campinas (7th).
(END) NDP/RMB/MVB
Published: 8/25/2021