Harvard gets schooled by China as America's universities choose activism over excellence

Harvard isn’t supposed to be chasing. It’s supposed to be leading. 

Yet a new global ranking put out by Holland’s Leiden University — a measure of the number and importance of research publications — has Harvard down to third place worldwide, and both institutions ahead of it are Chinese. It gets worse for America: in the top 20, Harvard and the University of Michigan are the only U.S. universities. China takes 16 of the top 20 slots. 

Unlike many such university lists, this ranking isn’t a reputational beauty contest...