Science and technology indicators 2003
UT with citations in European top ten
The impact of UT-research is substantially above the world average. The number of citations of UT-research in renowned scientific journals gives the UT the eighth place among the 22 European universities that have a global above-average 'citation impact score'. This is shown by the report Science and Technology Indicators 2003, published by the European Community at the end of March.
Of the Dutch universities (well-represented by seven among the 22 top scorers) only the Eindhoven gets a higher ranking than Twente: a shared third place with Munich, behind leaders Cambridge and Oxford. Delft is seventeenth in the list. In the ranking with the most productive European universities (with one university for each EU country) the Netherlands ends up in seventh place, thanks to the publication list of Utrecht, the largest university in the Netherlands. Leiden, on the other hand, defends Dutch honour in the list with the most-cited research per university. The number of publications was counted in the period 1993-1997 and the number of citations in the years 1993 up to and including 1999. EU-commissioner Busquin states in his report that the European Union again has become the largest producer of scientific publications in the world. The European countries took over the lead from the NAFTA-countries, USA, Canada and Mexico in 1997 and did not give up this position since then. The number of graduates and PhDs in the EU with 2.14 million in the year 2000 is also higher than the US (2.07 million) and Japan (1.1 million). However, this is offset by the fact that the EU only has 5.4 researchers per 1,000 jobs, against 8.7 in the US and 9.7 in Japan. The consequence is that many of Europe苨 鎎est brains seek their fortune on the American labour market. And that is worrying, Busquin feels, as well as the low scientific R&D-expenses in Europe: where Japan spends 176 euro per capita on R&D and the USA 142 euro, the EU-average is no higher than 89 euro. To raise the R&D-expenses in Europe to the same level as in the US and Japan, the budget has to be increased from 1.9 percent to 3 percent in 2010.
Rector magnificus Van Vught is happy about the high ranking of the UT. 'And I have congratulated my colleagues in Eindhoven with their ranking in the top three.' Although the measurement dates from four years ago, he states that the new set up of UT-research (the contours of which were already visible at that time) must have contributed to the European top position of the UT, where the research component is concerned. 'But one has to consider whetherthe Dutch universities will still come off this positive at the time of the next ranking, in four years' time therefore. Given the present cabinet's policy that could be most disappointing.' |
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