As vocational degrees go, library & information management is hardly one of the most well-known. Designed to prepare students for a career as a library & information professional, the typical undergraduate program covers such areas as information organization, information governance & ethics, and database design & management.
Now, for the first time ever the QS World University Rankings by Subject have been expanded to include library & information management as one of two new subjects, taking the total number included this year to 48.
50 universities from 17 different countries feature in this first-ever ranking of library & information management teaching, with two institutions sharing the top spot this year. The University of Sheffield in the UK has the honor of sharing first place with the US’s University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
The rest of the top 10, which is almost entirely made up of other universities from the UK and US, can be seen below, along with a regional breakdown.
Top 10 universities for library & information management, based on the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2018 |
||
|
1= |
University of Sheffield |
|
|
1= |
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill |
|
|
3 |
United States |
|
|
4 |
||
|
5 |
United States |
|
|
6 |
United States |
|
|
7 |
United States |
|
|
8 |
United Kingdom |
|
|
9 |
United States |
|
|
10 |
United States |
|
Top universities for library & information management in the United States and Canada
With eight of the top 10 universities hailing from North America, residents of the US and Canada won’t be short of options if they’re interested in studying library & information management. In total, 22 of the 50 universities ranked this year are from these two countries.
McGill University and the University of Toronto both narrowly miss out on a place in the top 10, ranking joint 11th. The other two Canadian universities to be ranked are Western University (21st) and Université de Montréal (joint 47th).
Notable American universities outside of the top 10 include Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, Syracuse University and University of Texas at Austin which are ranked 13th, 14th and 15th respectively.
Top universities for library & information management in Europe
Over half of the European universities included in this year’s ranking are based in the UK (seven of 13), with UCL (University College London) the next best-performing outside of the two universities in the top 10. The London-based institution is ranked 32nd in the world.
No other European country features more than once in the ranking. Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain are the six countries to be represented, with Spain’s Universidad Carlos III de Madrid the best-performing university from these countries with a ranking of 22nd. The University of Amsterdam is the only other one to feature in the top 30.
Top universities for library & information management in Australia & New Zealand
RMIT University is one of three universities from Australia and New Zealand to be ranked for library & information management this year, placing an extremely respectable 20th. The other Australian university to be included is Monash University, which is ranked joint 43rd (tied with China’s Fudan University and the universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde in the UK).
The sole New Zealand university to be featured is the Victoria University of Wellington, which is ranked 40th.
Top universities for library & information management in Asia
China and Taiwan both boast three universities in this inaugural ranking, although only one of these – National Taiwan University (NTU) – is in the top half of the ranking. Peking University is the highest-placed Chinese university in 30th place.
Japan and South Korea are the next most-represented countries with two universities apiece making the cut. Both the University of Tokyo and the University of Tsukuba are placed higher than their South Korean counterparts. The Japanese institutions are ranked 23rd and 37th respectively, while South Korea’s Sungkyunkwan University and Seoul National University (SNU) are outside the top 40.
The final two countries to be featured in this year’s ranking are Malaysia and Singapore. Universiti Malaya (UM) is ranked 24th in the world, while Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is a very respectable 18th. This makes NTU the highest-ranked institution to come from outside the US, the UK or Canada.
