Two Colombian universities reached top 20 rankings in Latin America this year, according to a study released by British university rankings website Quacquarelli Symonds (QS Rankings).
The private Los Andes University in Bogota, ranked fifth, receiving a 94.7 rating overall, a 99.8 in academics, and a 100 in employer reputation.
A close rival to Andes University is the public National University, which ranked 14th overall in Latin America. National University is also based in Bogota, but has satellite campuses throughout the country.
Colombia’s best universities
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To compare the two universities is difficult because they excel in different fields and in different ways. Andes University showed better results for its liberal arts programs, whereas National University is known more for its sciences and engineering.
Moreover, Andes University showed a higher prestige overall, receiving higher rankings both within Latin America and worldwide, however National University excelled in a much wider variety of subjects.
According to the QS website, “[Andes University] is the only private university in the country that has received the Institutional Accreditation from the Ministry of National Education for 9 years, granted in 2005.”
National University, however, was described as being the most important university of Colombia, employing “nearly 3,000 professors, and over 46,000 students (38,000 undergraduate and 8,000 graduate).
Andes University ranked internationally in Law and Business; International and Political Studies; Physics and Astronomy; Civil and Structural Engineering; History; and Philosophy.
Andes University is a private research university based in Bogotá’s historical city center. It currently educates an estimated 12,500 undergraduate students, maintains 2,500 master’s degree programs and 250 PhD programs.
National University, which is more of a math and science based school than Andes University, ranked internationally in Sociology; Mathematics; Environmental Science; Geography; Agricultural Engineering; Medicine; Chemical Engineering; Electrical and Electronic Engineering; and Modern Language.
The QS methodology measures academic reputation (30%), employer reputation (20%), faculty/student ratio (10%), citations per papers (10%), papers per faculty (10%), proportion of staff with PhD (10%), and web impact (10%).
Sources
QS University Rankings: Latin America – Methodology
QS University Rankings: Latin America 2014
Universidad de los Andes Rankings
