Universidad de Chile places first in national university rankings

Universidad de Chile has become the best university in Chile due to its extensive economic research and a change in the ranking system research methods.

It surpassed Universidad Católica in this year’s University Quality rankings released Friday by América Economía. Of the 59 universities in Chile, the two placed first and second, respectively, above Universidad de Concepción in third and Universidad de Santiago de Chile in fourth place.


U de Chile excelled in the research index, publishing more academic papers indexed by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) than U Católica. In four years, U de Chile published 6,134 papers while U Católica published 4,554.

This factor carried U de Chile to the top spot after the ranking system was changed to the university’s advantage, allowing the research index category to carry greater weight. Last year the research index counted for 10 percent of the universities overall score. This year that number was raised to 15 percent.

Universidad de Concepción also moved up in the 2012 rankings, surpassing Universidad de Santiago and moving from fourth to third place. According to América Economía, U de Santiago is struggling to attract students with University Selection Test (PSU) scores over 600-700 of 850 possible points. This, however, might be circumstantial, as U de Santiago recently launched seven new undergraduate programs, a factor that typically lowers a university’s rankings early on.

As usual, the top of the national rankings were dominated by “traditional” universities. The only non-traditional name to breach the top ten, once again, was Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, in ninth place.

By Emily Green (green@santiagotimes.cl)
Copyright 2012 - The Santiago Times