2010 Top 10 Famous University

For those who study in these famous Universities, I’m sure they’ll feel proud when they see their University’s name listed in the top 10. Let’s take a look what are the Universities.

1 ) Harvard University – USA

Harvard University (officially The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a member of the Ivy League. Established in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the first corporation  chartered in the United States and oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. The university currently comprises ten separate academic units. Harvard has the largest financial endowment of any school in the world, standing at $26 billion as of September 2009. Harvard is consistently ranked as a leading academic institution in the world by numerous media and academic rankings.

2 ) Yale University – USA

Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five U.S. presidents, seventeen U.S. Supreme Court Justices, and several foreign heads of state.  Incorporated as the Collegiate School, the institution traces its roots to 17th-century clergymen who sought to establish a college to train clergy and political leaders for the colony. In 1718, the College was renamed Yale College to honor a gift from Elihu Yale, a governor of the British East India Company. In 1861, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences became the first U.S. school to award the Ph.D.

The University’s assets include a US$16.3 billion endowment, the second largest of any academic institution, as well as the second largest academic library in the world, with some 12.5 million volumes held in more than two dozen libraries.

3 ) University of Cambridge – UK

The University of Cambridge (informally Cambridge University, or simply Cambridge) is the second oldest university in England and the fourth oldest in the world. In post-nominals the university’s name is abbreviated as Cantab, a shortened form of Cantabrigiensis.  The university grew out of an association of scholars in the city of Cambridge that was formed, early records suggest, in 1209 by scholars leaving Oxford after a dispute with townsfolk. The two “ancient universities” have many common features and are often jointly referred to as Oxbridge. In addition to cultural and practical associations as a historic part of British society, the two universities have a long history of rivalry with each other. Academically, Cambridge has been ranked one of the world’s top five universities, the leading university in Europe, and contends with Oxford for first place in UK league tables.

4 ) University of Oxford – UK

The University of Oxford (infor
mally Oxford University, or simply Oxford), a university located in the English city of Oxford, is the third oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest surviving in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world’s leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back as the 11th century. The University grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris. In post-nominals the University of Oxford is typically abbreviated as Oxon. (from the Latin Oxoniensis), although Oxf is sometimes used in official publications.

5 ) California Institute of Technology – USA

The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech) is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with a strong emphasis on sciences and engineering. Its primary 124-acre (50 ha) campus is located approximately 11 miles (18 km) northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Undergraduates live in a house system and although student life is governed by a honor code, Caltech has a strong tradition of practical jokes and pranks.

The Caltech Beavers compete in 13 intercollegiate sports in the NCAA Division III’s Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The men’s basketball and soccer teams have had notable streaks losing more than 200 games in a row but Caltech has also fielded competitive women’s table tennis and Ultimate club teams.

6 ) Imperial College London – UK

Imperial College London (officially The Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine as titled in its Royal Charter) is a British university in London specialising in science, engineering, medicine  and business. Imperial was placed 5th overall in the world in the 2009 Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings of universities worldwide, and was placed 26th in the Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities. Imperial College London is a member of the Russell Group of Universities, a part of the Golden Triangle, the IDEA League, the European University Association, AMBA, and the Association of Commonwealth Universities. Formerly a constituent college of the University of London, Imperial became independent of the university on 8 July 2007, the 100th anniversary of its founding.

7 ) University College London – UK

University College London (UCL) is a constituent college of the University of London, based primarily in Bloomsbury  in the London Borough of Camden.  Founded in 1826, UCL was the first university institution to be founded in London, the first university institution in the United Kingdom to be established on an entirely secular basis and admit students regardless of their religion, and the first to admit women on equal terms with men.

Consistently ranking amongst the top ten university institutions in the UK, UCL is a part of the elite Golden Triangle of UK universites. There are currently 21 Nobel prizewinners amongst UCL’s alumni and former staff, the most recent being Sir Charles K. Kao, who received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2009.

8 ) University of Chicago – USA

The University of Chicago is a private, coeducational research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890; William Rainey Harper became its first president in 1891 and the first classes were held in 1892.  The University consists of the College of the University of Chicago, various graduate programs and interdisciplinary committees organized into four divisions, six professional schools, and a school of continuing education. In 2007, the University spent $322,488,000 on scientific research. University of Chicago scholars have played a role in the development of the Chicago School of Economics, the Chicago School of Sociology, the Law and Economics movement in legal analysis, and the physics leading to the world’s first man-made, self-sustaining nuclear reaction.

9) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – USA

MIT is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological research. MIT is one of two private land-grant universities and is also a sea-grant and space-grant university. MIT enrolled 4,232 undergraduates and 6,152 graduate students for the Fall 2009–2010 term. It employs about 1,009 faculty members. Its endowment and annual research expenditures are among the largest of any American university. 75 Nobel Laureates, 47 National Medal of Science recipients, and 31 MacArthur Fellows are currently or have previously been affiliated with the university. The aggregated revenues of companies founded by MIT alumni would be the seventeenth largest economy in the world.

The University was founded in 1868 in a merger of the private College of California and the public Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College. Berkeley was a founding member of the Association of American Universities. The University of California, Berkeley is currently ranked 3rd among world universities by the Academic Ranking of World Universities, and has the highest number of graduate programs ranked in the top 10 for their fields by the United States National Research Council.

10 ) Columbia University – USA

In 2007, the University spent $322,488,000 on scientific research. University of Chicago scholars have played a role in the development of the Chicago School of Economics, the Chicago School of Sociology, the Law and Economics movement in legal analysis, and the physics leading to the world’s first man-made, self-susColumbia University in the City of New York (commonly known as Columbia University, or simply Columbia) is a private university  in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country’s nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution.aining nuclear reaction. The majority of Columbia’s graduate and undergraduate studies are conducted in Morningside Heights on Seth Low’s late-19th century vision of a university campus where all disciplines could be taught in one location.

reference link : wikipedia