This good ranking of KIT is mainly due to improvements in the areas of research and citations by more than 10%. In addition, KIT has improved by about 17 percent in third-party funding by industry (industry income). Here, it is in the top 80 of the world. With industry income, THE measures the universities’ capacity of supporting in-dustry with innovations, inventions, and advice. KIT already did well in the recently published “Reuters Top 100: The World’s Most Inno-vative Universities” ranking. It revealed that KIT succeeds in making its scientific findings usable by society and industry via startups, spinoffs, licenses, and services.
The annual THE ranking of the Times Higher Education journal is based on 13 criteria. The universities’ reputation is derived from interviews of academics. General statistics of the universities are evaluated and citations of articles in expert journals are counted. The criteria are weighed as follows: Education (30%), research (30%), citations (30%), internationality (7.5%), and industry income (2.5%).
More information about THE: https://www.timeshighereducation.com
Press release about KIT’s ranking in the Reuters Top 100:
http://www.kit.edu/kit/english/pi_2015_106_kit-is-among-the-most-innovative-universities-in-the-world.php
Being “The Research University in the Helmholtz Association”, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 10,000 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,800 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.