Technische Universität Darmstadt

The Technische Universität Darmstadt (Technical University of Darmstadt or Darmstadt University of Technology), commonly referred to as TU Darmstadt is a research university in the city of Darmstadt, Germany. It was founded in 1877 and received the right to award doctorates in 1899. In 1882 it was the first university in the world to set up a chair in electrical engineering, in 1883 the first faculty for electrical engineering was founded there.

University of Surrey

The University of Surrey is a public research university located within the county town of Guildford, Surrey, in the South East of England, United Kingdom. The university specializes in science, engineering, medicine and business. It received its charter on 9 September 1966, and was previously situated near Battersea Park in south-west London. The institution was known as Battersea College of Technology before gaining university status. Its roots, however, go back to the Battersea Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1891 to provide further and higher education for London's poorer inhabitants.
The university conducts research on small satellites and has a high number of staff who are members of learned societies. The university has recently expanded into China by launching the Surrey International Institute with Dongbei University of Finance and Economics.
The university's main campus is located on Stag Hill close to the centre of Guildford and adjacent to Guildford Cathedral. A second campus, at Manor Park, is located a short distance away and has been developed to expand upon existing accommodation, academic buildings and sporting facilities.
The university is a major centre for satellite and mobile communications research. In March 2014, the British Prime Minister David Cameron announced a partnership between the University of Surrey, King's College London and the University of Dresden for the development of 5G technology. The university is a member of the Association of MBAs, the European University Association and Association of Commonwealth Universities. The University is ranked consistently high by The Times, the Guardian and the Sunday Times. According to the figures revealed by the Higher Education Statistics Agency 2013/14, the University of Surrey has the fourth highest percentage of graduates entering employment and/or further study within six months of graduation at 96.9% (behind Lancaster University, Robert Gordon University and Arts University Bournemouth) — higher than the University of Oxford (92.6%) and the University of Cambridge (95.2%).
The university has 10 Fellows of the Royal Society, 21 Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering, one Fellow of the British Academy and 6 Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences.

History

Battersea Polytechnic Institute

The University of Surrey was preceded by the Battersea Polytechnic Institute which was founded in 1891 and admitted its first students in 1894. Its aims were to provide greater access to further and higher education for some of the "poorer inhabitants" of London.
In 1901, Evening Classes consisted of some of the following; Mechanical Engineering and Building, Electrical Engineering, Chemical and other Trades, Physics and Natural Science, Maths, Languages, and Commercial subjects, Music. Special classes for Women in Domestic Economy subjects. Day Classes in Art, Science, Women's subjects and Gymnastics. Classes in preparation for University and Professional Examinations. Also. Science day School for Boys and Girls, Commercial School for Girls, Training School for Domestic Economy and Training for Teachers.
The Institute focused on science and technology subjects, and from about 1920 taught some classes for University of London students. The Institute awarded University of London external degrees.

Battersea College of Technology

In 1956, the Institute was among the first to receive the designation "College of Advanced Technology" and was renamed Battersea College of Technology. By the beginning of the sixties, the College had virtually outgrown its building in Battersea and had decided to move to Guildford. In addition to this, the Robbins Report of 1963 proposed that the Colleges of Advanced Technology, including Battersea, should expand and become degree-awarding universities.
In 1965, the university-designate acquired a greenfield site in Guildford from Guildford Cathedral, Guildford Borough Council and the Onslow Village Trust.
One notorious alumnus was Lord Haw-Haw

University

On 9 September 1966 the University of Surrey was established by Royal Charter and by 1970 the move from Battersea to Guildford was complete.
Early visitors to the new campus were Led Zeppelin, who performed their very first gig at the university on 15 October 1968.
Between 1982 and 2008, the university became the trustee of the building of the Guildford Institute, using parts of the building for its adult education programme ad providing a university presence in the heart of Guildford. The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (formerly Associated Examining Board) moved from Aldershot to its own headquarters building on the Stag Hill campus in 1985.
The university marked its Silver Jubilee in 1991, an event celebrated by the publishing of Surrey – The Rise of a Modern University by Roy Douglas and by a Service of Thanksgiving in Guildford Cathedral attended by HM The Queen in March 1992.
The university celebrated its 35th anniversary year in May 2002 with a major event in Guildford Cathedral. It was also marked by the unveiling of the Surrey Scholar sculpture (by Allan Sly FBS) to mark the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty The Queen and as a gift to the people of Guildford. The Surrey Scholar is located at the bottom of Guildford High Street. Understanding the Real World, a visual history of the university, by Christopher Pick, was published to coincide with this anniversary.
In 2007, the university saw a major increase in overall applications by 39% compared with the previous year. This was followed by a further increase in applications of 12% in 2008.
In October 2008, the university lost out to Royal Holloway in a bid to merge with London medical institute St George's, University of London.
From September 2009, the Guildford School of Acting became a subsidiary of the university and relocated from Guildford town centre to the university campus.

Governance
On 1 July 2005, Christopher Snowden became Surrey's fourth Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive. Like his predecessors Dowling and Kelly, Snowden is a Fellow of the Royal Society.

University of Gothenburg

The University of Gothenburg is a university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg.

The University of Gothenburg is the third-oldest of the current Swedish universities, and with 37 000 students and 6000 staff members, it is also among the largest universities in the Nordic countries.

With its eight faculties and 38 departments, the University of Gothenburg is also one of the most wide-ranging and versatile universities in Sweden. Its eight faculties offer training in the Creative Arts, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Humanities, Education, Information Technology, Business, Economics and Law, and Health Sciences.

The University of Gothenburg has the highest number of applicants per study place in many of its subjects and courses. University of Gothenburg and is therefore one of the most popular universities in Sweden.

University of Strathclyde

The University of Strathclyde is a Scottish public research university located in Glasgow, United Kingdom. It is Glasgow's second university by age, being founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, and receiving its Royal Charter in 1964 as the UK's first technological university. It takes its name from the historic Kingdom of Strathclyde.

The University of Strathclyde is Scotland's third largest university by number of students, with students and staff from over 100 countries. The institution was awarded University of the Year 2012 and Entrepreneurial University of the year 2013 by Times Higher Education.

Entry into many of the courses in the university is competitive and successful entrants in 2015 had an average of 473 UCAS points. This means that successful applicants to Strathclyde have the 3rd highest average score in Scotland (above the University of Glasgow), and is ranked 12th overall in the UK. It is also one of the 39 old universities in the UK comprising the distinctive second cluster of elite universities after Oxbridge.

Arizona State University

Arizona State University is a public flagship metropolitan research university located on five campuses across the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area, and four regional learning centers throughout Arizona. The 2016 university ratings by U.S. News & World Report rank ASU No. 1 among the Most Innovative Schools in America.

ASU is the largest public university by enrollment in the U.S. ASU's charter, approved by the board of regents in 2014, is based on the "New American University" model created by ASU President Crow. It defines ASU as "a comprehensive public research university, measured not by whom it excludes, but rather by whom it includes and how they succeed; advancing research and discovery of public value; and assuming fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities it serves."

ASU is classified as a research university with very high research activity (RU/VH) by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Since 2005 ASU has been ranked among the top research universities, public and private, in the U.S. based on research output, innovation, development, research expenditures, number of awarded patents and awarded research grant proposals. The Center for Measuring University Performance currently ranks ASU 31st among top U.S. public research universities. ASU was classified as a Research I institute in 1994, making it one of the newest major research universities (public or private) in the nation.

Students compete in 25 varsity sports. The Arizona State Sun Devils are members of the Pac-12 Conference and have won 23 NCAA championships. Along with multiple athletic clubs and recreational facilities, ASU is home to more than 1,100 registered student organizations, reflecting the diversity of the student body. To keep pace with the growth of the student population, the university is continuously renovating and expanding infrastructure. The demand for new academic halls, athletic facilities, student recreation centers, and residential halls is being addressed with donor contributions and public-private investments.

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois and one of the world's leading and influential institutions of higher learning, with top ten positions in numerous rankings and measures.

The university, established in 1890, consists of The College, various graduate programs, interdisciplinary committees organized into four academic research divisions and seven professional schools. Beyond the arts and sciences, Chicago is also well known for its professional schools, which include the Pritzker School of Medicine, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, the Law School, the School of Social Service Administration, the Harris School of Public Policy Studies, the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies and the Divinity School. The university currently enrolls approximately 5,000 students in the College and around 15,000 students overall.

University of Chicago scholars have played a major role in the development of various academic disciplines, including: the Chicago school of economics, the Chicago school of sociology, the law and economics movement in legal analysis, the Chicago school of literary criticism, the Chicago school of religion, and the behavioralism school of political science. Chicago's physics department helped develop the world's first man-made, self-sustaining nuclear reaction beneath the university's Stagg Field. Chicago's research pursuits have been aided by unique affiliations with world-renowned institutions like the nearby Fermilab and Argonne National Laboratory, as well as the Marine Biological Laboratory. The university is also home to the University of Chicago Press, the largest university press in the United States. With an estimated completion date of 2020, the Barack Obama Presidential Center will be housed at the University of Chicago and include both the Obama presidential library and offices of the Obama Foundation.

Founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and wealthiest man in history John D. Rockefeller, the University of Chicago was incorporated in 1890; William Rainey Harper became the university's first president in 1891, and the first classes were held in 1892. Both Harper and future president Robert Maynard Hutchins advocated for Chicago's curriculum to be based upon theoretical and perennial issues rather than on applied sciences and commercial utility. With Harper's vision in mind, the University of Chicago also became one of the 14 founding members of the Association of American Universities, an international organization of leading research universities, in 1900.

The University of Chicago is home to many prominent alumni. 89 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with the university as visiting professors, students, faculty, or staff, the fourth most of any institution in the world. In addition, Chicago's alumni include 49 Rhodes Scholars, 21 Marshall Scholars, 9 Fields Medalists, 13 National Humanities Medalists, 13 billionaire graduates, and a plethora of members of the United States Congress and heads of state of countries all over the world.

ETH Zurich

ETH Zurich  is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. Like its sister institution EPFL, it is an integral part of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain (ETH Domain) that is directly subordinate to Switzerland's Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research.

ETH Zurich is consistently ranked among the top universities in the world. It is currently ranked as 5th best university in the world in engineering, science and technology, just behind the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Cambridge University and National University of Singapore in the QS World University Rankings.

Twenty-one Nobel Prizes have been awarded to students or professors of the Institute in the past, the most famous of whom was Albert Einstein with the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Niels Bohr who was awarded the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics, both for work dealing with quantum physics. It is a founding member of the IDEA League and the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) and a member of the CESAER network.

The school was founded by the Swiss Federal Government in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, serve as a national center of excellence in science and technology and provide a hub for interaction between the scientific community and industry.

Imperial College London

Imperial College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom. It was founded by Prince Albert who envisioned an area composed of the Natural History Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Royal Albert Hall and the Imperial Institute. The Imperial Institute was opened by his wife, Queen Victoria, who laid the first stone. In 1907, Imperial College London was formed by Royal Charter, and soon joined the University of London, with a focus on science and technology. The college has expanded its coursework to medicine through mergers with St Mary's Hospital. In 2004, Queen Elizabeth II opened the Imperial College Business School. Imperial became an independent university from the University of London during its one hundred year anniversary.

Imperial is organised into faculties of science, engineering, medicine and business. Its main campus is located in South Kensington, adjacent to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens in central London. The university formed the first academic health science centre in the United Kingdom. Imperial is a member of the Russell Group, G5, Association of Commonwealth Universities, League of European Research Universities, and the "Golden Triangle" of British universities.

Imperial is included among the best universities in the world by numerous university rankings. According to The New York Times, recruiters consider its students among the top ten most valuable graduates in the world, receiving the highest salaries of any UK university. Imperial faculty and alumni include 15 Nobel laureates, 2 Fields Medalists, 70 Fellows of the Royal Society, 82 Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering and 78 Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

University College London

University College London (UCL) is a public research university in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Established in 1826 as London University by founders inspired by the radical ideas of Jeremy Bentham, UCL was the first university institution established in London and the earliest in England to be entirely secular, admitting students regardless of their religion. It also makes the disputed claim to have been the first to admit women on equal terms with men. UCL's push for non-Anglicans to be allowed to take university degrees was one of the driving factors behind the establishment of the University of London in 1836, when UCL become one of the two colleges affiliated to the University at its foundation. In recent years it has grown through mergers, including with the Institute of Neurology (in 1997), the Royal Free Hospital Medical School (in 1998), the Eastman Dental Institute (in 1999), the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (in 1999), the School of Pharmacy (in 2012) and the Institute of Education (in 2014). UCL is the largest higher education institution in London and the largest postgraduate institution in the UK by enrollment and is regarded as one of the leading multidisciplinary research universities in the world.

UCL's main campus is located in the Bloomsbury area of central London, with a number of institutes and teaching hospitals elsewhere in central London and satellite campuses in Adelaide, Australia and Doha, Qatar. UCL is organised into 11 constituent faculties, within which there are over 100 departments, institutes and research centres. UCL is responsible for several museums and collections in a wide range of fields, including the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and the Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy. As of 2014, UCL had around 28,000 students and 11,000 staff (including around 6,000 academic staff and 980 professors) and had a total income of £1.18 billion in 2014/15, of which £427.5 million was from research grants and contracts UCL is a member of numerous academic organisations and is part of UCL Partners, the world's largest academic health science centre, and the 'golden triangle' of elite English universities.

UCL is one of the most selective British universities and ranks highly in national and international league tables. UCL's graduates are ranked among the most employable by international employers and its alumni include the "Father of the Nation" of each of India, Kenya and Mauritius, founders of Ghana, modern Japan and Nigeria, the inventor of the telephone, and one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA. UCL academics have contributed to major advances in several disciplines; all five of the naturally-occurring noble gases were discovered at UCL by William Ramsay, the vacuum tube was invented by UCL graduate John Ambrose Fleming while a faculty of UCL and several foundational advances in modern statistics were made at UCL's statistical science department founded by Karl Pearson. There are 32 Nobel Prize winners and three Fields Medalists amongst UCL's alumni and current and former staff.

The University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university located in Oxford, England. While having no known date of foundation, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest surviving university. It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris. After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled northeast to Cambridge where they established what became the University of Cambridge. The two "ancient universities" are frequently jointly referred to as "Oxbridge".

The university is made up of a variety of institutions, including 38 constituent colleges and a full range of academic departments which are organised into four divisions. All the colleges are self-governing institutions as part of the university, each controlling its own membership and with its own internal structure and activities. Being a city university, it does not have a main campus; instead, all the buildings and facilities are scattered throughout the city centre. Most undergraduate teaching at Oxford is organised around weekly tutorials at the self-governing colleges and halls, supported by classes, lectures and laboratory work provided by university faculties and departments.

Oxford is the home of several notable scholarships, including the Clarendon Scholarship which was launched in 2001and the Rhodes Scholarship which has brought graduate students to study at the university for more than a century. The university operates the largest university press in the world and the largest academic library system in the United Kingdom. Oxford has educated many notable alumni, including 27 Nobel laureates, 26 British prime ministers (most recently David Cameron, the incumbent) and many foreign heads of state.

California Institute of Technology

The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Although founded as a preparatory and vocational school by Amos G. Throop in 1891, the college attracted influential scientists such as George Ellery Hale, Arthur Amos Noyes, and Robert Andrews Millikan in the early 20th century. The vocational and preparatory schools were disbanded and spun off in 1910, and the college assumed its present name in 1921. In 1934, Caltech was elected to the Association of American Universities, and the antecedents of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which Caltech continues to manage and operate, were established between 1936 and 1943 under Theodore von Kármán. The university is one among a small group of Institutes of Technology in the United States which tends to be primarily devoted to the instruction of technical arts and applied sciences.

Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphasis on science and engineering, managing $332 million in 2011 in sponsored research. Its 124-acre primary campus is located approximately 11 mi northeast of downtown Los Angeles. First-year students are required to live on campus, and 95% of undergraduates remain in the on-campus house system. Although Caltech has a strong tradition of practical jokes and pranks, student life is governed by an honor code which allows faculty to assign take-home examinations. The Caltech Beavers compete in 13 intercollegiate sports in the NCAA Division III's Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Caltech is frequently cited as one of the world's best universities. Despite its small size, 33 Caltech alumni and faculty have won a total of 34 Nobel Prizes (Linus Pauling being the only individual in history to win two unshared prizes) and 71 have won the United States National Medal of Science or Technology. There are 112 faculty members who have been elected to the National Academies. In addition, numerous faculty members are associated with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as well as NASA.

Stanford University

Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, and one of the world's most prestigious institutions, with the top position in numerous rankings and measures in the United States.

Stanford was founded in 1885 by Leland Stanford, former Governor of and U.S. Senator from California and leading railroad tycoon, and his wife, Jane Lathrop Stanford, in memory of their only child, Leland Stanford, Jr., who had died of typhoid fever at age 15 the previous year. Stanford admitted its first students on October 1, 1891 as a coeducational and non-denominational institution. Tuition was free until 1920. The university struggled financially after Leland Stanford's 1893 death and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Following World War II, Provost Frederick Terman supported faculty and graduates' entrepreneurialism to build self-sufficient local industry in what would later be known as Silicon Valley. By 1970, Stanford was home to a linear accelerator, and was one of the original four ARPANET nodes (precursor to the Internet).

The main campus is in northern Santa Clara Valley adjacent to Palo Alto and between San Jose and San Francisco. Stanford also has land and facilities elsewhere. Its 8,180-acre campus is one of the largest in the United States. The university is also one of the top fundraising institutions in the country, becoming the first school to raise more than a billion dollars in a year.

Stanford's academic strength is broad with 40 departments in the three academic schools that have undergraduate students and another four professional schools. Students compete in 36 varsity sports, and the university is one of two private institutions in the Division I FBS Pac-12 Conference. It has gained 108 NCAA team championships, the second-most for a university, 476 individual championships, the most in Division I, and has won the NACDA Directors' Cup, recognizing the university with the best overall athletic team achievement, every year since 1994-1995.

Stanford faculty and alumni have founded many companies including Google, Hewlett-Packard, Nike, Sun Microsystems, Instagram, Snapchat, and Yahoo!, and companies founded by Stanford alumni generate more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue, equivalent to the 10th-largest economy in the world. It is the alma mater of 30 living billionaires, 17 astronauts, and 18 Turing Award laureates. It is also one of the leading producers of members of the United States Congress. The University has affiliated with 60 Nobel laureates and 2 Fields Medalists (when awarded).

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a collegiate public research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, Cambridge is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's fourth-oldest surviving university. It grew out of an association of scholars who left the University of Oxford after a dispute with the townspeople. The two ancient universities share many common features and are often jointly referred to as "Oxbridge".

Cambridge is formed from a variety of institutions which include 31 constituent colleges and over 100 academic departments organised into six schools. The university occupies buildings throughout the city, many of which are of historical importance. The colleges are self-governing institutions founded as integral parts of the university. In the year ended 31 July 2015, the university had a total income of £1.638 billion, of which £397 million was from research grants and contracts. The central university and colleges have a combined endowment of around £5.89 billion, the largest of any university outside the United States. Cambridge is a member of many associations and forms part of the "golden triangle" of leading English universities and Cambridge University Health Partners, an academic health science centre. The university is closely linked with the development of the high-tech business cluster known as "Silicon Fen".

Students' learning involves lectures and laboratory sessions organised by departments, and supervisions provided by the colleges. The university operates eight arts, cultural, and scientific museums, including the Fitzwilliam Museum and a botanic garden. Cambridge's libraries hold a total of around 15 million books, 8 million of which are in Cambridge University Library which is a legal deposit library. Cambridge University Press, a department of the university, is the world's oldest publishing house and the second-largest university press in the world. Cambridge is regularly included among the world's best and most reputable universities by most university rankings. Beside academic studies, student life is centred on the colleges and numerous pan-university artistic activities, sports clubs and societies.

Cambridge has many notable alumni, including several eminent mathematicians, scientists, economists, writers, philosophers, actors, politicians. Ninety-two Nobel laureates have been affiliated with it as students, faculty, staff or alumni. Throughout its history, the university has featured in literature and artistic works by numerous authors including Geoffrey Chaucer, E. M. Forster and C. P. Snow.

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, established in 1636. Its history, influence and wealth have made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.

Established originally by the Massachusetts legislature and soon thereafter named for John Harvard (its first benefactor), Harvard is the United States' oldest institution of higher learning, and the Harvard Corporation (formally, the President and Fellows of Harvard College) is its first chartered corporation. Although never formally affiliated with any denomination, the early College primarily trained Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Its curriculum and student body were gradually secularized during the 18th century, and by the 19th century Harvard had emerged as the central cultural establishment among Boston elites. Following the American Civil War, President Charles W. Eliot's long tenure (1869–1909) transformed the college and affiliated professional schools into a modern research university; Harvard was a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900. James Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College.

The University is organized into eleven separate academic units—ten faculties and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study—with campuses throughout the Boston metropolitan area: its 209-acre (85 ha) main campus is centered on Harvard Yard in Cambridge, approximately 3 miles (5 km) northwest of Boston; the business school and athletics facilities, including Harvard Stadium, are located across the Charles River in the Allston neighborhood of Boston and the medical, dental, and public health schools are in the Longwood Medical Area. Harvard has the largest financial endowment of any academic institution in the world, standing at $36.4 billion.

Harvard is a large, highly residential research university. The nominal cost of attendance is high, but the University's large endowment allows it to offer generous financial aid packages. It operates several arts, cultural, and scientific museums, alongside the Harvard Library, which is the world's largest academic and private library system, comprising 79 individual libraries with over 18 million volumes. Harvard's alumni include eight U.S. presidents, several foreign heads of state, 62 living billionaires, 335 Rhodes Scholars, and 242 Marshall Scholars. To date, some 150 Nobel laureates and 5 Fields Medalists (when awarded) have been affiliated as students, faculty, or staff.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1861 in response to the increasing industrialization of the United States, MIT adopted a European polytechnic university model and stressed laboratory instruction in applied science and engineering. Researchers worked on computers, radar, and inertial guidance during World War II and the Cold War. Post-war defense research contributed to the rapid expansion of the faculty and campus under James Killian. The current 168-acre (68.0 ha) campus opened in 1916 and extends over 1 mile (1.6 km) along the northern bank of the Charles River basin.

MIT, with five schools and one college which contain a total of 32 departments, is often cited as among the world's top universities. The Institute is traditionally known for its research and education in the physical sciences and engineering, and more recently in biology, economics, linguistics, and management as well. The "Engineers" sponsor 31 sports, most teams of which compete in the NCAA Division III's New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference; the Division I rowing programs compete as part of the EARC and EAWRC.

As of 2015, 85 Nobel laureates, 52 National Medal of Science recipients, 65 Marshall Scholars, 45 Rhodes Scholars, 38 MacArthur Fellows, 34 astronauts, and 2 Fields Medalists have been affiliated with MIT. The school has a strong entrepreneurial culture, and the aggregated revenues of companies founded by MIT alumni would rank as the eleventh-largest economy in the world.