The world's top universities in 2013...

Happy New Year!  We thought we'd kick off 2014 with one of those "best of the year" lists...the best universities in the world in 2013.  And of course, you'll need to take the TOEFL iBT (which Britt can help you prepare for) to acquire admission into these great schools.

Emphasis on research and innovation

The California Institute of Technology, a private institution with just 2,200 students, takes the No. 1 slot again this year in the 10th annual World University Rankings, put out by Times Higher Education, a London magazine that tracks the higher ed market. Two years ago Cal Tech bumped Harvard out of first place. Last year Harvard slipped down three slots, to No. 4, behind the University of Oxford in the U.K. and Stanford, which tied for second place. But this year Harvard is back in the No. 2 slot, tied with Oxford. Stanford slipped to fourth place in the magazine's list of 400 schools.

Unlike Forbes' ranking, which measures only U.S. schools, or the much-read U.S. News & World Report lists of U.S. and international institutions, the magazine does not consider measures like entry requirements, graduation rates, professor ratings by students or alumni salaries post-graduation. Instead its methodology emphasizes global scholarship and reputation.

"We put the heaviest weight on research and innovation, research productivity and research excellence," explains Times Higher Education rankings editor Phil Baty. "Our list is really about producing new ideas, about innovating, about attracting skills and talented people into a country. It's also about bringing business money into the higher education center."

To compile its ranking, the magazine looked at 13 "performance indicators" to evaluate whether schools are achieving their core missions of teaching, research, knowledge transfer and "international outlook."

See the complete explanation and list:  here