100 Books University Students Read Around the World
Hey everyone! I've been digging into the world of academia and discovered some fascinating insights into what university students are reading around the world! Using the Open Syllabus Project, a massive database of university syllabi, I've compiled a list of 100 frequently assigned books. Now, it's important to note that while the project includes data from many countries, its collection is weighted towards English-language institutions. So, while this list offers a global perspective, it's not a perfectly comprehensive representation of every university worldwide. With that in mind, let's dive into the 100 books shaping minds in higher education!
The Open Syllabus Project: Understanding What Students Are Reading
The Open Syllabus Project is dedicated to understanding what students are reading in higher education. By collecting and analyzing a vast number of university syllabi, the project provides valuable data on the books and other materials assigned in courses across a wide range of disciplines. This information helps researchers, educators, and the public gain insights into curriculum trends, pedagogical approaches, and the evolution of academic knowledge.
Below is the full list of 100 most frequently assigned books, as revealed by the Open Syllabus Project.
| Rank | Title | Author(s) | Appearances | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Calculus | James Stewart | 15,638 | 100 |
| 2 | The Elements of Style | William Strunk | 12,660 | 100 |
| 3 | Human Anatomy and Physiology Laboratory Manual | Elaine Nicpon Marieb | 12,166 | 100 |
| 4 | Social Research Methods | Alan Bryman | 10,795 | 100 |
| 5 | Biology | Neil Alexander Campbell | 10,195 | 100 |
| 6 | Research Design | John W. Creswell | 9,615 | 100 |
| 7 | Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-Time Researchers in Education and Social Science | Judith Bell | 9,309 | 100 |
| 8 | The Communist Manifesto | Karl Marx | 9,273 | 100 |
| 9 | The Study Skills Handbook | Stella Cottrell | 8,759 | 100 |
| 10 | Discovering Statistics Using IBM SPSS | Andy P. Field | 8,724 | 100 |
| 11 | A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers | Kate L. Turabian | 8,443 | 100 |
| 12 | Orientalism | Edward W. Said | 8,420 | 100 |
| 13 | They Say/I Say | Cathy Birkenstein | 8,246 | 100 |
| 14 | Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism | Benedict R. O.'G. Anderson | 8,198 | 100 |
| 15 | English Grammar in Use | Raymond Murphy | 7,903 | 100 |
| 16 | Introduction to Algorithms | T. H. Corman | 7,729 | 100 |
| 17 | Molecular Biology of the Cell: The Problems Book | Bruce Alberts | 7,559 | 100 |
| 18 | A Pocket Style Manual | Diana Hacker | 7,533 | 100 |
| 19 | The Craft of Research | Wayne C. Booth | 7,522 | 100 |
| 20 | Frankenstein | Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley | 7,225 | 100 |
| 21 | Leviathan | Thomas Hobbes | 6,988 | 100 |
| 22 | Nicomachean Ethics | Aristotle | 6,918 | 100 |
| 23 | A Writer's Reference | Diana Hacker | 6,863 | 99 |
| 24 | Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach | S. Russel | 6,668 | 100 |
| 25 | Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison | Michel Foucault | 6,637 | 99 |
| 26 | The Prince | Niccolo Machiavelli | 6,260 | 99 |
| 27 | The Art of Public Speaking | Stephen E. Lucas | 6,149 | 99 |
| 28 | Give Me Liberty!: An American History | Eric Foner | 6,106 | 100 |
| 29 | Heart of Darkness | Joseph Conrad | 6,022 | 99 |
| 30 | Marketing Management | Philip Kotler | 5,995 | 100 |
| 31 | The Republic | Plato | 5,901 | 99 |
| 32 | Research Methods for Business Students | Mark Saunders | 5,835 | 100 |
| 33 | Critical Thinking Skills: Developing Effective Analysis and Argument | Stella Cottrell | 5,818 | 100 |
| 34 | Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach | Jeffrey M. Wooldridge | 5,803 | 99 |
| 35 | Easy Writer | Andrea Lundsford | 5,796 | 97 |
| 36 | Computer Networking | James F. Kurose, Keith W. Ross | 5,687 | 99 |
| 37 | The Good Research Guide: For Small-Scale Social Research Projects | Martyn Denscombe | 5,683 | 99 |
| 38 | The Clash of Civilizations? | Samuel P. Huntington | 5,615 | 98 |
| 39 | Principles of Anatomy and Physiology | Gerard J. Tortora | 5,598 | 99 |
| 40 | Intermediate Algebra: A Graphing Approach | K. Elayn Martin-Gay | 5,562 | 99 |
| 41 | Real World Research: A Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner-Researchers | Colin Robson | 5,456 | 99 |
| 42 | Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series | John Berger | 5,282 | 99 |
| 43 | Case Study Research: Design and Methods | Robert K. Yin | 5,216 | 99 |
| 44 | Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In | Ury | 5,184 | 98 |
| 45 | Pedagogy of the Oppressed | Paulo Freire | 5,174 | 99 |
| 46 | Intermediate Accounting | Donald E. Kieso | 5,145 | 98 |
| 47 | International Economics: Theory and Policy | Paul R. Krugman | 5,131 | 99 |
| 48 | Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity | Judith Butler | 5,131 | 99 |
| 49 | Leadership: Theory and Practice | Peter Guy Northouse | 5,098 | 99 |
| 50 | Doing Qualitative Research: A Practical Handbook | David Silverman | 5,096 | 99 |
| 51 | Communication Skills Handbook | Jane Summers, Brett Smith | 5,060 | 96 |
| 52 | We the People: An Introduction to American Politics | Ginsburg | 5,046 | 99 |
| 53 | Engineering Mechanics | R. C. Hibbeler | 5,029 | 99 |
| 54 | Chemistry: The Central Science | Theodore L. Brown | 4,910 | 98 |
| 55 | Principles of Corporate Finance | Richard A. Brealey | 4,861 | 99 |
| 56 | Yellow Wallpaper | Charlotte Perkins Gilman | 4,844 | 98 |
| 57 | The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action | Donald A. Schèon | 4,813 | 98 |
| 58 | Principles of Marketing | Philip Kotler | 4,808 | 99 |
| 59 | On Liberty | John Stuart Mill | 4,806 | 97 |
| 60 | The Structure of Scientific Revolutions | Thomas S. Kuhn | 4,792 | 98 |
| 61 | Film Art: An Introduction | David Bordwell | 4,790 | 98 |
| 62 | Fundamentals of Physics: David Halliday, Robert Resnick, Jearl Walker | David Halliday | 4,778 | 99 |
| 63 | The History of Sexuality: 1 | Michel Foucault | 4,772 | 98 |
| 64 | Elementary Statistics | Mario F. Triola | 4,727 | 98 |
| 65 | Medical-Surgical Nursing: Assessment and Management of Clinical Problems | Sharon Mantik Lewis | 4,719 | 100 |
| 66 | How to Read a Paper: The Basics of Evidence-Based Medicine | Trisha Greenhalgh | 4,685 | 98 |
| 67 | Meditations on First Philosophy | René Descartes | 4,672 | 98 |
| 68 | Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals | Immanuel Kant | 4,658 | 98 |
| 69 | Second Treatise of Government | John Locke | 4,645 | 97 |
| 70 | Standards for Professional Communication | Ann Mikula | 4,594 | 94 |
| 71 | Rang and Dale's Pharmacology | James Ritter | 4,489 | 98 |
| 72 | Research Methods in Education | Louis Cohen | 4,482 | 99 |
| 73 | Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction | William D. Callister | 4,441 | 98 |
| 74 | Fundamentals of Anatomy and Physiology | Frederic Martini | 4,422 | 98 |
| 75 | Computer Networks | Andrew S. Tannenbaum | 4,387 | 98 |
| 76 | Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives | John Hull | 4,360 | 98 |
| 77 | Reflective Practice: Writing and Professional Development | Gillie Bolton | 4,346 | 98 |
| 78 | A Theory of Justice | John Rawls | 4,344 | 97 |
| 79 | Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design | John W. Creswell | 4,310 | 99 |
| 80 | Calculus | Ron Larson | 4,309 | 98 |
| 81 | Things Fall Apart | Chinua Achebe | 4,275 | 97 |
| 82 | Physical Chemistry | P. W. Atkins | 4,270 | 98 |
| 83 | Skills for Success | Stella Cottrell | 4,236 | 98 |
| 84 | The C Programming Language | Brian W. Kernighan | 4,195 | 97 |
| 85 | Business Research Methods | E. Bell | 4,149 | 98 |
| 86 | Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave | Frederick Douglass | 4,119 | 97 |
| 87 | University Physics: With Modern Physics | Hugh D. Young | 4,092 | 97 |
| 88 | The Elements of Statistical Learning | Jerome Friedman | 4,077 | 99 |
| 89 | The Norton Field Guide to Writing | Richard H. Bullock | 4,074 | 99 |
| 90 | Principles of Biochemistry: The Molecular Basis of Cell Structure and Function | Nelson | 4,065 | 98 |
| 91 | Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface | David A. Patterson | 4,063 | 97 |
| 92 | Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers | Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur | 4,041 | 98 |
| 93 | Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach | Hal R. Varian | 4,041 | 97 |
| 94 | MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers | Joseph Gibaldi | 4,031 | 95 |
| 95 | An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations | Adam Smith | 3,985 | 96 |
| 96 | Democracy in America | Alexis De Tocqueville | 3,965 | 96 |
| 97 | Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination | Chris Hart | 3,959 | 97 |
| 98 | The Tragedy of the Commons | Garrett Hardin | 3,950 | 96 |
| 99 | America: A Narrative History | George Brown Tindall | 3,935 | 95 |
| 100 | Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community | Robert D. Putnam | 3,922 | 96 |
