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Welcome to "On the Net Today". Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we bring you a handpicked selection of three valuable and interesting online resources to help you get the most out of the internet and optimize your browsing time.

Here are the three resources we've prepared for today:

• Oxford remains the best university in the world, according to The Times Higher Education ranking

• NPS: All the information about the more than 400 national parks in the United States

• The UN seeks artistic and cultural initiatives "for positive global change"

Oxford remains the best university in the world, according to The Times Higher Education ranking

The University of Oxford is, for the ninth consecutive year, the number one in the world, according to the World University Rankings 2025 published a few days ago by The Times Higher Education.

According to this study, which is one of the main global references when assessing the quality of universities worldwide, these are the ten that top the list:

1. University of Oxford (United Kingdom)

2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA)

3. Harvard University (USA)

4. Princeton University (USA)

5. University of Cambridge (United Kingdom)

6. Stanford University (USA)

7. California Institute of Technology (USA)

8. University of California, Berkeley (USA)

9. Imperial College London (United Kingdom)

10. Yale University (USA)

The countries that have the most universities among the top 200 in the world are, in this order, United States (55), United Kingdom (25), Germany (20), China (13), Netherlands (11), Australia (10), Canada (8), South Korea (6), and Switzerland (6).

The Times Higher Education ranking allows searching and sorting universities by areas of study, countries, and evaluation criteria.

Links:

• World University Rankings 2025 

• World University Rankings 2025: results announced

NPS: All the information about the more than 400 national parks in the United States

Each year, about 320 million people visit the more than 400 national parks that exist in the United States. The National Park Service (NPS) is the official service dedicated to protecting and preserving these natural treasures.

The first national park in the United States was Yellowstone, declared as such in 1872. Since then, more than 430 areas of the United States territory have been officially considered national parks.

The National Park Service (NPS) was created on August 25, 1916, to "preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations."

The NPS website is an essential source of information about the parks. It allows, among other things, to plan visits, search for parks on a map, learn about them, or search for images and multimedia files about any of the parks.

Links:

• National Park Service (NPS) 

• Map of the parks 

• The NPS has its own app (App Store and Google Play) 

• Plan your visit 

• Learn & Explore 

• Image and multimedia file search

The UN seeks artistic and cultural initiatives "for positive global change"

The Museum for the United Nations – UN Live is accepting nominations until the end of this October for its Culture for Impact 2024 list, with which it wants to highlight "extraordinary initiatives" in the field of arts and popular culture "for positive global change".

The selection criteria for the initiatives are as follows:

Cultural innovation: pioneering the use of popular culture for social change. Gender diversity: inclusive creative expressions across genders. Topic versatility: addressing various issues with adaptable approaches. Global inclusivity: highlighting global cultural impact. Dual impact: celebrating both large-scale and grassroots cultural change.

The nominated initiatives can address any of the UN SDGs, but the focus must be on their social impact.

While awaiting nominations, last year's initiatives can be reviewed here.

Link:

• Culture for Impact 2024 

• Museum for the United Nations – UN Live

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That's all for today. Have a good start to the week!