The Cayman Scholar Award is the government’s top new scholarship opportunity, providing one Caymanian boy and one Caymanian girl full tuition for their undergraduate studies at an elite university.
But until recently, what qualified as an “Ivy League or Gold Tiered” university was not known.
The award, valued at up to $100,000 per year, was announced this summer. At the time, Minister of Education Juliana O’Connor-Connolly said, “Throughout the years, we have seen several brilliant Caymanian scholars who have missed out on the opportunity to attend some of the world’s most prestigious universities because of insufficient funding. [This award will allow] them to soar to the pinnacle of academic achievement without the barrier of funding, and [enable] them to attend approved Ivy League or Gold Tiered Universities.”
Last week, the ministry provided more details about the Cayman Scholar Award, specifying that eligible universities must appear in the top 100 in the QS World University Rankings.
In addition to well-known institutions in the UK and US, many of the universities are located in Europe and Asia, as well as Australia and New Zealand.
However, there are no eligible universities in Africa and only one in Latin America -- Argentina’s Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA).
In total, 35 of the universities are located in Europe or the UK, 31 in North America, 26 in Asia, 8 in Oceania and one in Latin America. (Because of tied rankings, there are actually 101 schools in the ‘top 100’.)
The description of the Cayman Scholar Award specifies 'Ivy League' schools. The Ivy League is a group of eight private research universities in the Northeastern US, including Harvard, Yale and Princeton universities.
Seven of the eight Ivy League schools are in the QS top 100 list. One is not: Dartmouth College, which ranks 191th.
Here’s a list of the top 100 universities you can explore:
| Rank | Institution | Region |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | North America |
| 2 | University of Oxford | Europe/UK |
| 3 | Stanford University | North America |
| 3 | University of Cambridge | Europe/UK |
| 5 | Harvard University | North America |
| 6 | California Institute of Technology | North America |
| 7 | Imperial College London | Europe/UK |
| 8 | University College London | Europe/UK |
| 8 | Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich | Europe/UK |
| 10 | University of Chicago | North America |
| 11 | National University of Singapore | Asia |
| 12 | University of Pennsylvania | North America |
| 13 | Nanyang Technological University | Asia |
| 14 | Yale University | North America |
| 14 | Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne | Europe/UK |
| 16 | University of Edinburgh | Europe/UK |
| 17 | Tsinghua University | Asia |
| 18 | Peking University | Asia |
| 19 | Columbia University | North America |
| 20 | Princeton University | North America |
| 21 | Cornell University | North America |
| 22 | University of Hong Kong | Asia |
| 23 | University of Michigan | North America |
| 23 | University of Tokyo | Asia |
| 25 | Johns Hopkins University | North America |
| 26 | University of Toronto | North America |
| 27 | University of Manchester | Europe/UK |
| 27 | McGill University | North America |
| 27 | Australian National University | Australia/New Zealand |
| 30 | Northwestern University | North America |
| 31 | Fudan University | Asia |
| 32 | University of California, Berkeley | North America |
| 33 | Kyoto University | Asia |
| 34 | Hong Kong University of Science and Technology | Asia |
| 35 | King's College London | Europe/UK |
| 36 | Seoul National University | Asia |
| 37 | University of Melbourne | Australia/New Zealand |
| 38 | University of Sydney | Australia/New Zealand |
| 39 | Chinese University of Hong Kong | Asia |
| 40 | University of California, Los Angeles | North America |
| 41 | KAIST | Asia |
| 42 | New York University | North America |
| 43 | University of New South Wales | Australia/New Zealand |
| 44 | Paris Sciences et Lettres University | Europe/UK |
| 45 | Zhejiang University | Asia |
| 46 | University of British Columbia | North America |
| 47 | University of Queensland | Australia/New Zealand |
| 48 | University of California, San Diego | North America |
| 49 | London School of Economics | Europe/UK |
| 49 | Polytechnic Institute of Paris | Europe/UK |
| 50 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | Asia |
| 50 | Technical University of Munich | Europe/UK |
| 52 | Duke University | North America |
| 53 | Carnegie Mellon University | North America |
| 53 | City University of Hong Kong | Asia |
| 55 | University of Amsterdam | Europe/UK |
| 56 | Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) | Asia |
| 57 | Delft University of Technology | Europe/UK |
| 58 | Monash University | Australia/New Zealand |
| 60 | Brown University | North America |
| 61 | The University of Warwick | Europe/UK |
| 62 | University of Bristol | Europe/UK |
| 63 | Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg | Europe/UK |
| 64 | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | Europe/UK |
| 65 | Universiti Malaya (UM) | Asia |
| 66 | The Hong Kong Polytechnic University | Asia |
| 67 | University of Texas at Austin | North America |
| 58 | National Taiwan University (NTU) | Asia |
| 69 | Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) | Latin America |
| 70 | KU Leuven | Europe/UK |
| 70 | University of Zurich | Europe/UK |
| 72 | Sorbonne University | Europe/UK |
| 73 | University of Glasgow | Europe/UK |
| 74 | Korea University | Asia |
| 75 | Osaka University | Asia |
| 75 | University of Wisconsin-Madison | North America |
| 77 | University of Southampton | Europe/UK |
| 78 | Lomonosov Moscow State University | Europe/UK |
| 79 | University of Copenhagen | Europe/UK |
| 79 | Yonsei University | Asia |
| 81 | Pohang University of Science And Technology (POSTECH) | Asia |
| 82 | Durham University | Europe/UK |
| 82 | Tohoku University | Asia |
| 82 | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | North America |
| 85 | The University of Auckland | Australia/New Zealand |
| 85 | University of Washington | North America |
| 86 | Université Paris-Saclay | Europe/UK |
| 87 | Lund University | Europe/UK |
| 88 | Georgia Institute of Technology | North America |
| 89 | KTH Royal Institute of Technology | Europe/UK |
| 90 | University of Birmingham | Europe/UK |
| 91 | University of St Andrews | Europe/UK |
| 92 | University of Leeds | Europe/UK |
| 93 | The University of Western Australia | Australia/New Zealand |
| 94 | Rice University | North America |
| 95 | The University of Sheffield | Europe/UK |
| 96 | Pennsylvania State University | North America |
| 97 | Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) | Asia |
| 98 | University of Science and Technology of China | Asia |
| 99 | Technical University of Denmark | Europe/UK |
| 100 | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill | North America |
University ranking lists are often controversial, and schools’ rankings can vary widely according to which group created the list and what factors they used.
For example, 50% of the QS ranking score is determined by opinion surveys of academics and businesses, with the other half calculated according to faculty/student ratio, research output and the ratio of international faculty and students.
The UK-based QS ranking is one of the most popular university rankings in the world, along with the China-based Academic Ranking of World Universities and the UK-based Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
US News & World Report also publishes a Best Global University Ranking, in addition to its domestic Best Colleges Ranking of American schools.
If you’re interested in UK schools, the Guardian publishes its own rankings of The Best UK Universities.
While each organisation and list has its own methodology, it can be said generally that ‘world’ rankings tend to emphasise academic research, while ‘domestic’ rankings will incorporate factors such as student satisfaction, entry standards, price, etc.