World University Rankings 2023: trends in teaching

World University Rankings 2023: results announced

Browse the full results of the World University Rankings 2023

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The pillar measuring teaching and the learning environment – which includes data on teaching reputation, the staff-to-student ratio, doctorate-to-bachelor’s ratio, doctorates-awarded-to-academic-staff ratio and institutional income – shows the most variation in average score between continents.

North America scores dramatically higher than any other continent, with Europe and Oceania being the only other regions consistently scoring above the world average over the past five years. South America has performed slightly better than Africa historically, but this year shows Africa catching up, with an average score of 21.7 compared with South America’s 22.3.

The three countries with the highest average score for teaching are Hong Kong, Switzerland and the US (considering only countries with at least three universities ranked from 2019). But digging down into which countries are improving the most in this area reveals some interesting surprises.

Over the past five years, the country with the biggest improvement in teaching score was Hungary, which increased by 11 points, from 19 to 30. Second was Saudi Arabia, which rose from 23.5 to 30, followed by Morocco, climbing from 22 to 27.