Countries Make Push for Higher-Ranked Universities

Many countries, including France, Finland and Portugal, are using outside university rankings to shape their education policies. They are among the countries merging, or discussing merging, their universities in hopes of climbing the rankings, which are led by schools in the U.S. and U.K. France does not have a school ranked in the top 60, according to Times Higher Education, a U.K. trade publication; Portugal has none in the top 100.