CoinDesk, a cryptocurrency exchange, has published this year’s rankings for the Top Universities For Blockchain. The list is dominated by Asian schools, but European universities are in better positions.
The crypto platform claimed that the National University of Singapore had taken the top spot in a blog posting. Next came the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and University of California Berkeley. Zurich was fifth.
Singapore National University topped the list due to its numerous blockchain research centres, frequent Blockchain-themed conferences, clubs and company partnerships, as well as its masters program in digital financial technology.
The sample size for this year’s ranking was increased to include 230 schools from around the world, as opposed to only US schools. Rankings include cost, academic reputation and research output. Campus blockchain offerings, such as student clubs, research centres, courses, and employment outcomes, are also included.
Tsinghua University, Hong Kong Polytechnic and the Chinese University of Hong Kong were also among the top 10, making them the only Asian schools to make it into the top 10. RMIT in Melbourne is Australia’s representative, while UCL, ETH Zurich and UCL are European universities.
Berkeley
Berkeley was third, MIT fifth, and Cornell 17th, respectively. Last year’s 2nd place Cornell was at 17. Stanford, which was last year’s fourth, settled at 12. Harvard fell to 49, from 5th last. CoinDesk stated that the declines reflect “strong competition” and that schools with strong reputations don’t always perform well when it comes to blockchain.
The average score of European universities is second, followed closely by US schools. With an average scaled score score of 63 points, Asian and Australian schools topped the region. American and Canadian schools scored a combined average score of just 59 points.
The highest tuitions for top American and Canadian blockchain schools averaged $52,000 per academic year. The second-most affordable school for blockchain was the top European schools, which averaged $16,700 per annum. Schools in Asia and Australia had the lowest tuitions at $12,000 annually.
Ranking
These rankings are now in their second year. They include 230 international schools, compared to the 46 US schools that were included in the last year’s Top 30.
Reuben Youngblom, a Stanford and MIT researcher, and Joe Lautzenhiser from CoinDesk, analyzed publicly available resources, including course catalogs, prospectuses and social media channels. They also created a survey online where students, academics and other stakeholders could rate offerings at their schools.
The ranking this year also took into account the cost of university education. This year, a new metric was introduced that compares the unsubsidised tuition cost to the average cost living in the area of the school.