When one of China’s top-ranked research institutions decided to compile a list of the world’s top 100 universities – to identify China’s main rivals in an emerging research-driven economy- it often landed in the American Midwest.
The Shanghai Jiao Tong University found that nearly one in five of the world’s leading universities – 19 of the top 100 – were in the Great Lakes region. The report listed the University of Chicago at No. 9; University of Wisconsin-Madison, No. 16; and University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, No. 21.