America sees the Ivy League used as shorthand for the best schools, with some people even rolling in non-Ivys like Stanford or MIT into the grouping, even if it doesn’t fit the technical definition.
I don’t know how accurate it is, but in the UK I’ve seem Oxbridge/Camford to describe not only the educational prowess of the top schools of Oxford and Cambridge, but as a general term for political and financial elitism.
China meanwhile appears to have the C9 League and 985 Schools.
Korea has its SKY Universities, a trio of schools (Seoul, Korea, and Yonsei) with the term more recently popularized abroad by the drama SKY Castle.
What about you all?
Edit: Why are you guys all mentioning money? I said Prestigious, not Expensive.
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Universities are more or less free of charge here, so it’s kinda difficult to flex with your ability to go to an expensive uni, when their essentially are none. I’ve heard about some universities being famous for certain subjects or because they have a large number of students, but I’m not aware of any kind of Ivy League analog. The dividing line seems to be more between having been to a uni or not. Workers vs. Intellectuals – that and similar kinds of stupidity.
That’s not really much of a thing here. All state universities are on about the same level. Some are more prestigious in one field, some in others, but there’s none that would be considered prestigious in general.
In Cyprus the closest to that would be “τα δημόσια” (the public [ones]). Obviously it’s a small place but there are three public universities with a good reputation, and then nearly a dozen private universities that operate as various degrees of diplma mills (not all of them are equally bad, to be fair).
A public university degree is still more prestigious than that of a private uni.
RoC also does not divide universities into research vs technical as well, so the technical university in Limassol is not perceived as lesser than the research university in Nicosia.
No, because no one really perceives them as elite or prestigious. The quality gap between Bulgarian and (broadly speaking) Western universities isn’t that wide anymore but people still make it sound like anyone who wants to be someone has to “get a degree in a Western university”.
All universities cost the same – Oxford and Cambridge (“Oxbridge”) are more about academic and social elitism, not financial. It’s basically a class issue. They’re also genuinely the best, world-class unis.
There’s also the Russell Group – a bigger group of the best universities in the UK, with a certain standard in research etc, and it’s definitely a thing that people say Russell Group unis look much better on your CV than others. Although, obviously there are other universities that are good too, especially for certain subjects.
The two federal tech institutes are maybe a bit more prestigious for their fields than the more regular universities, but there’s no shorthand like you are describing, and nobody is impressed by which uni you visit.
Except maybe the newer ones like Lucerne, Neuchâtel or Bellinzona, people tend to forget that these even exist.
Nope. There isnt really much prestige linked with different universities here. Most of them are public, so free of charge. So where you go doesnt matter nearly as much as what you study. Only the fields here have some level of prestige, like medicine.
Education is free in Sweden, so there are no Ivy-League type of expensive universities.
The biggest divider I can think of is *högskola* (“college”) who has no research level, and *universitet* (“university”) who has research level. But there are plenty of universities that still bear the name *högskola* (“college”), despite having their own research level.
Prestige is instead based on the grade threshold required to enter, which often correlates with the school’s age and alma mater.
But there is no specific shorthand for these schools.
The most prestigious (and oldest) Universities in Scotland are collectively referred to as the ‘ancient universities’. These are:
St. Andrews (founded 1413)
Glasgow (1451)
Aberdeen (1495)
Edinburgh (1583).
Edinburgh and Glasgow are both Russell Group Unis, as described in another comment.
Undergraduate education is free for Scottish students, though these institutions still remain quite elitist.
We don’t really have a term for the most prestigious universities.
Here, most top universities are public (there are also private ones, but most of the best ones are public), which means that getting in one of them is all about your grades, not money or social status or anythinglike that.
Also, what universities are considered the best will change depending on the area. The top universities when it comes to engineering will be different that when it comes to sociology, or medicine, or economics.
None of that really matters for Belgians generally. Only reason somebody would ever ask where you got your degree is to know if they went to the same one and ask if some pub is still there or something.
While some have a bit more international prestige I would always recommend to look for the university that suits you. Some are more practical/theoretical than others and such.
Price for university is about 800/year or so so if you work during the summer that’s covered.
*The Ancient Universities/The Four Ancient Universities*
St. Andrews, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow.
All of which were founded around 1500 or so. (1495 for Aberdeen, I can’t remember the dates for the others).
Don’t think so, there’s a couple that are more prestigious but it’s not extra hard to get in. They have the same bars as any other uni. Plus they’re not more expensive, prices differ per major, not per uni.
No. Some universities have more prestige than others, particular those with 500 years of history. Usually, the more prestigious ones are public (“free” if you can’t afford them), since you don’t “pay to succeed” and you access them **strictly** by order of your grades in high school. You **cannot** pay for the privilege of being accepted; if there are 100 places you better make sure you are among the best 100 getting in. Else, you can pay a private university but everyone would know you didn’t make the cut.
No term, but the 2 biggest and oldest, Copenhagen and Aarhus might be slightly more sought after, but that has as much to do with the city they’re in, Roskilde sticks out a bit because it utilises group work more, but people generally choose based on what you want to study, and want to live while doing so.
No, not at all, and I’m Italian. In my opinion, it’s mostly a thing related to English-speaking countries, that are obsessed on rankings and all this fluff. I never got why a degree in Literature at “Oxbridge” (let’s say) or UCL should be that different from a degree in Literature at the University of Southampton – and guess what, STEM instead are practically always considered prestigious no matter where you graduate!
In Italy we are very straightforward, so a degree it’s the same everywhere and that degree js hard on the same level everywhere.
I can tell you that a Medicine degree is considered prestigious (pretty much like everywhere in the world) and one of the best universities for Economics is considered Bocconi University – a private, expensive university which it’s usually regarded as a university for rich people, but everyone knows that it’s good because of networking and looks good on a résumé, not because it’s good “per se”. You can learn the same stuff of Economics at any other uni.
But that’s all.
Some universities in Slovakia are considered better I guess but not by much since I don’t even know which ones they are. Probably one in Bratislava but I don’t know its name. We don’t have anything similar to Ivy League here. Imo all universities in Slovakia are equally bad. Those that are considered more “prestigious” are just more difficult, have a super low graduation rate, and the professors there think they’re god or something.