The World's Best Architecture Schools in Research: 2009–13 results
The Good Oil
Every five years we survey and rate the research performance of the architecture schools in the English-speaking nations. Previous surveys were conducted in 2005 and 2007. These rankings are valid for five years.
Our previous studies convinced us that there is simply no point in making annual or even biannual rankings. If you think the academic world changes that quickly, you should forget a university education and go back to your Harry Potter books. We will start our next survey in 2014.
On these pages you can find the results of our most recent survey, that of 2009. Features of the 2009 report:
- Every school from nine key English-speaking nations examined: the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Eire, Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand
- Over 170 architecture schools rated: every single accredited school for which data was available
- Almost 3,200 architectural academics assessed
You can read about our methodology here.
For an excellent discussion of architecture school ratings systems, see ‘ Great Programs in Architecture’ (IJAR 2008 2:2 (11-22), by Ann Forsyth.
New Rating the individual professors. We rank over 3,000 architecture professors for their research abilities. The 2010-13 report is available.
About the ratings
Our survey is intended to aid postgrads {graduates} seeking a place to conduct architectural research.
The survey does not claim to be a guide to those keen to become working architects. Our rankings won't help someone out of high school looking to maximize their future prospects and income. For that, American students should buy the survey from DesignIntelligence, which provides a rankings list of American schools. Our survey has two advantages compared to our competitor at DesignIntelligence. First, it is free and gratis. Second, our survey includes every single school in the USA and Canada for which we could obtain data, unlike DesignIntelligence' paltry efforts ranking a handful of schools. Anyone looking to study architecture should also read the discussions at ArchiNect.
How did we calculate our ratings?
Read this page.
Who should use our ratings?
We have attempted to measure the architecture schools and their academics {professors} in terms of their research output. We make no statement of their quality of teaching. Our only claim that is that postgrads looking to complete higher studies, or undergrads looking for an intellectual challenge, should cast a glance over our ratings.
Previous surveys: the 2005 and 2007 ratings
The original 2005 Research Report is available for free download. Its data and methodology have been superseded by our 2007 and 2009 rankings. You should read it for the substantial information it has about our data collection, and a commentary on the schools' websites.
Where are the 2009/13 ratings?
Right here:
- Schools of the United States.
- Schools of the United Kingdom.
- Schools of Canada.
- Schools of Australia.
- Schools of New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Eire.
- Schools of South Africa.