Harvard is not supposed to chase. It should be leading.
Yet a new global ranking from the Dutch University of Leiden – a measure of the number and importance of research publications – has put Harvard third globally, and both institutions before it are Chinese. Things get even worse for America: Harvard and the University of Michigan are the only American universities in the top twenty. China takes 16 of the top 20 slots.
Unlike many such university lists, this ranking is not a reputation beauty contest, but a statistical analysis based on publication data. In other words, it’s a way to measure what a research university should do: produce serious science at scale.
So when the world’s most famous university is in decline—and when China dominates the top of the table—we need to stop waving about “globalization” and start asking what exactly has gone wrong in American academia.
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Harvard is falling in the rankings of top research universities as Chinese universities focus on research and not the woke agenda. (Photo by Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images)
The answer is not that Americans have suddenly become dumber. It is that our universities have become less serious.
The focus on many campuses in recent years has shifted from the search for truth, merit, and education to DEI, identity, and activism. This dynamic emerges everywhere where research production is concerned: recruitment, education and the basic culture of research.
Hiring increasingly rewards ideological compliance rather than intellectual excellence. Diversity declarations and “commitment” litmus tests have become routine. Entire searches aim to narrow the acceptable range of viewpoints and methodologies. If a university hires activists who happen to have PhDs instead of scientists who happen to have opinions, it should not be surprised if science suffers.
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In too many places, teaching has been reduced to therapeutic affirmation and political mobilization. Students receive more indoctrination than instruction, producing graduates ill-equipped with the writing skills, math skills and discipline needed to drive the next generation of research and innovation.
The research culture has become timid and conformist. Entire categories of questions are treated as morally impermissible to even ask. But real research requires risk: challenging assumptions, poking sacred cows, and following the evidence wherever it leads. A campus that punishes dissent will ultimately punish discovery.
Meanwhile, China has been building research capacity as a state project – because it is one. It funds labs, scales programs, recruits talent, and measures success in results that translate into technological and geopolitical power.
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Even ten years ago this contrast was stark. In the 2015 Leiden rankings, American institutions dominated the top 20, with MIT, Harvard and Caltech at the top. That is not centuries-old history, but within the careers of virtually all current university officials.
Protesters take part in an ‘Emergency Rally: Stand with Palestinians Under Siege in Gaza’ amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the terror group Hamas, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, October 14, 2023. (Brian Snyder/REUTERS)
At the same time, institutional leaders who lecture Americans about “democracy” have been disturbingly nonchalant about foreign money, which usually comes with strings attached.
The federal government has repeatedly had to investigate universities for failing to disclose foreign gifts and contracts. For example, in 2020, the Department of Education investigated Harvard and Yale for possible failures to report large amounts of foreign funding; Data from the Department of Education (DoE) shows that billions in foreign donations have been received from countries such as Qatar and China. Last April, an executive order aimed at countering foreign influence noted that DoE investigations led universities to release $6.5 billion in previously undisclosed foreign funds.
And it’s not just money. U.S. law enforcement officials and congressional researchers have warned for years about programs designed to exploit America’s open research environment. The FBI describes Chinese “talent schemes” as often encouraging one-way transfers of research and intellectual property, sometimes through undisclosed ties and contracts. A Senate investigation detailed how China’s talent acquisition programs were designed to draw research and expertise from the United States to advance China’s national goals.
The bottom line is that America’s universities are being outcompeted abroad while being hollowed out at home. If we want to reclaim research leadership, we must reclaim the purpose of the university by doing at least four things:
The research culture has become timid and conformist. Entire categories of questions are treated as morally impermissible to even ask.
- Abolish DEI bureaucracies and end the ideological litmus test in hiring and promotion. No more forced ‘explanations’. No more identity-based preferences disguised as ‘fairness’. Merit, accuracy and performance should be the criteria.
- Restore serious education – not activist programming – as the core mission. Students need to learn how to think, not what to sing.
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- Tough action against foreign influence: transparency, enforcement and clear lines. If universities want public money and public trust, they must fully disclose foreign gifts and contracts and aggressively police conflicts.
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Harvard’s decline in the Leiden rankings is not a quirky statistic, but a warning sign. China is on the rise because it focuses on research, development and education. America is in decline because our universities have too often traded these priorities for DEI bureaucracy, identity politics, and activism.
We can reverse this. But first we have to admit that we have a problem.
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