The National University of Singapore (NUS) has topped a worldwide ranking of educational institutions that are supporting and nurturing qualifications in digital ledger blockchain technology.
NUS grabbed first place in the Top 50 rankings compiled by crypto and digital asset news outlet CoinDesk in conjunction with Stanford and MIT researcher Reuben Youngblom.
Runner-up in the best schools and universities for studying blockchain and digital currencies was the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), followed by the University of California Berkeley in third place.
The rankings cover courses offered, research output, campus blockchain offerings such as student clubs and research centres, employment outcomes, academic reputation and cost.
CoinDesk said NUS took top honours in its Universities for Blockchain rankings 2021 because of the Singapore university’s numerous blockchain research centres, blockchain-themed conferences and clubs, company partnerships and its Master’s program in digital financial technology.
The top 10 international schools for studying blockchain were NUS, RMIT, University of California Berkeley, University of Zurich, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Hong Kong Polytechnic, University College London, Tsinghua University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and ETH Zurich.
Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University was in 11th place.
Last year’s top 30 CoinDesk rankings of universities for blockchain evaluated just 46 U.S. schools, but Asian universities dominated the expanded 2021 Top 50 list which tracked 230 academic institutions worldwide.
CoinDesk said US university Cornell (second in 2020) came in 17th place in 2021, Stanford (fourth in 2020) was 12th, and Harvard (fifth in 2020) was now 49th, reflecting both the stronger competition this year and the fact that “schools with strong overall reputations aren’t always the best performers when it comes to blockchain”.
NUS also ranked highly for the second consecutive year in another study, the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings by subject, coming in eighth worldwide for Computer Science out of 891 universities from 75 countries and regions.