Latin America University Rankings 2016: Pilot ranking of Latin America’s universities offers new perspective

Browse the full list of the top 50 institutions in the Latin America rankings

This new ranking arguably provides the most comprehensive view of leading universities in Latin America ever produced – but we want it to become even broader.

The ranking draws upon the 13 tried and trusted performance indicators used to create the annual Times Higher Education World University Rankings, covering all of a university’s core missions: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

However, we want it to capture even more of what universities in Latin America do.

The ranking adopts the established methodology of the THE World University Rankings, reweighting performance indicators to reflect the different profile and different nature of institutions in the region.

Yet we want to go even further in providing data that reflect the mission and priorities of Latin American institutions.

The ranking uses THE’s clear global data points and judges institutions against established global metrics, allowing Latin American institutions to benchmark themselves against universities anywhere in the world.

But we want to make better use of regional data and to more closely reflect regional activities.

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So while Times Higher Education is proud to have produced this pioneering top 50 list of universities across Latin America – and to have brought a fresh perspective on excellence in the region – we see it as a preliminary step.

The ranking is a pilot designed to provoke debate and to open up a consultation with academics and university leaders across the region on what a full, bespoke ranking for this part of the world should look like. It will no doubt include some controversial outcomes.

The conversation starts with our inaugural Latin America Universities Summit in Bogotá, where these new data are being released, but it must continue in the coming months and years.

Our director of data and analytics, Duncan Ross, describes the methodological issues that he confronted in compiling this pilot ranking and he outlines the areas and indicators that we would like to explore further.

As this list is a work in progress, based on our existing database of institutions, we need more institutions to engage and to share more data. So we invite everyone to take part, and also to give us input on the indicators that will shape the THE Latin America University Rankings. You can email us at data@timeshighereducation.com.

Over five decades, Times Higher Education has supported universities in their pursuit of excellence, with analysis, commentary, debate and data, but most importantly, through partnership.

Such partnership with the regional community will be at the heart of the future development of the THE Latin America University Rankings.

Phil Baty
Editor, Times Higher Education World University Rankings
Twitter: @Phil_Baty

Countries represented in THE Latin America University Rankings 2016