College and university rankings
Encyclopedia
College and university rankings are lists of institutions in higher education, ordered by combinations of factors. In addition to entire institutions, specific programs, departments, and schools are ranked. Rankings are conducted by magazines, newspapers, governments and academics.
Various rankings consider measures of research excellence and/or influence, student choices, eventual success and/or demographics, on surveys, and others. Some rankings evaluate institutions within a single country, while others assess institutions worldwide. The subject has produced much debate about rankings' usefulness and accuracy. The expanding diversity in rating methodologies and accompanying criticisms of each indicate the lack of consensus in the field.
Rankings are often consulted by prospective students in the university and college admissions process.
and now maintained by the Shanghai Rankings Consultancy, has provided annual global rankings of universities since 2003, making it the earliest of its kind. Its initial purpose was to measure the gap between Chinese and "world class" universities. ARWU rankings have been cited by The Economist
magazine. It has been lauded for being "consistent and transparent". The education ministers of France, Norway and Denmark traveled to Jiaotong University to discuss and find ways to improve their rankings.
ARWU does not rely on surveys and school submissions. Among other criteria, ARWU includes the number of articles published by Nature
or Science
and the number of Nobel Prize
winners and Fields Medal
ists (mathematics).
One of the primary criticisms of ARWU's methodology is that it is biased towards the natural science
s and English language science journals over other subjects. In addition to the criticisms, a 2007 paper from the peer-reviewed journal Scientometrics
suggested that the results could not be independently reproduced.
search engine
data. G-factor is an indicator of the popularity or importance of each university's website from the combined perspectives of other institutions. It claims to be an objective peer review of a university through its website—in social network theory terminology, G-factor measures the centrality of each university's website in the network
of university websites.
in fifth place, ahead of Harvard and Cambridge
.
(HEEACT). HEEACT is designed to assess research universities. The indicators are designed to measure both long-term and short-term research performance.
This project employs bibliometrics
to analyze and rank the performance of the 500 top universities and the top 300 universities in six fields. HEEACT further provides subject rankings in science and technology fields. It also rank the top 300 universities across ten science and technology fields.
The ranking includes eight indicators. They are: articles published over prior 11 years; citations of those articles, "current" articles, current citations, average citations, "H-index", number of "highly–cited papers" and high impact journal articles. They represent three criteria of scientific papers performance: research productivity, research impact, and research excellence.
The 2007 ranking methodology was alleged to have favored universities with medical schools, and in response, HEEACT added assessment criteria. The six field–based rankings are based on the subject categorization of WOS, including Agriculture & Environment Sciences (AGE), Clinical Medicine (MED), Engineering, Computing & Technology (ENG), Life Sciences (LIFE), Natural Sciences (SCI) and Social Sciences (SOC). The ten subjects include Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Geosciences, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering (including Energy & Fuels), Materials Sciences, and Civil Engineering (including Environmental Engineering).
. The project uses standard bibliometric indicators, namely the 10-year g-index
and h-index
. RPI equally weighs contributions from the five faculties. The five faculty scores are normalized
to place them onto a common scale. The normalized scores are then averaged to arrive at a final RPI.
maintains a European and world wide ranking of the top 500 universities according including the number and impact of Web of Science-indexed publications per year. The rankings compare research institutions by taking into account differences in language, discipline and institutional size. Multiple ranking lists are released according to various bibliometric normalization and impact indicators, including the number of publications, citations-per-publication, publications per impact, and field-averaged impact per publication.
published a ranking of the Top 100 Global Universities, using selected criteria from ARWU and the Times Higher Education-QS rankings, with the additional criterion of the number of volumes in the library. It formed part of a special issue including an article from Tony Blair
, then prime minister
of the UK, but has not been repeated. It considered openness and diversity as well as distinction in research.
measures the efficiency of each university at producing leading business professionals. Its main compilation criterion is the number of Chief Executive Officer
s (or equivalent) in the among the Fortune Global 500
. This ranking has been criticized for placing five French universities into the top 20.
and published annually since 2004. In 2011 they ranked 712 universities, with the University of Cambridge
in the UK, the Harvard University
in the USA and the McGill University
in Canada on top. The QS rankings should not be confused with the Times Higher Education World University Rankings
. From 2004 to 2009 the QS rankings were published in collaboration with Times Higher Education and were known as the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings. In 2010 QS assumed sole publication of rankings produced with this methodology when Times Higher Education split from QS in order to create a new rankings methodology in partnership with Thomson Reuters. The QS rankings are published in the United States by US News & World Report as the "World's Best Universities."
The QS rankings use peer review data collected (in 2011) from 33,744 scholars and academics and 16,785 recruiters. These two are worth 40 per cent and 10 per cent of a university's possible score. The QS rankings also incorporate citation per faculty member data from Scopus
,, faculty/student ratios, and international staff and student numbers. The citations and faculty/student measures are worth 20 per cent of an institution's total score and the international staff and student data five per cent each. QS has published online material about its methodology http://iu.qs.com/projects-and-services/world-university-rankings/.
QS published the 2011 QS World University Rankings
online on September 6, 2011. The rankings also appear in book form, and via media partners including US News & World Report and Chosun Ibo.
QS has added to its main World University Rankings, starting in 2009 with the Asian University Rankings http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/asian-university-rankings/2011. The QS Latin American University Rankings http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/latin-american-university-rankings/2011 and the QS World University Rankings by Subject http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings were published for the first time in 2011.
The subject rankings are intended to address the most frequent criticism of all world university ranking systems, that they contain too little material about specific subjects, something potential applicants are keen to see. These rankings have been drawn up on the basis of citations, academic peer review and recruiter review, with the weightings for each dependent upon the culture and practice of the subject concerned. They are published in five clusters; engineering; biomedicine; the natural sciences; the social sciences; and the arts and humanities, and cover 26 subjects.
, Charles III University of Madrid, University of Alcalá
, University of Extremadura
and other education institutions in Spain.
The ranking measures areas such as: research output, international collaboration, normalized impact and publication rate.
(QS). THE published a table of the top 200 universities and QS ranked approximately 500 online, in book form, and via media partners. On 30 October 2009, THE broke with QS and joined Thomson Reuters
to provide a new set of world university rankings, called Times Higher Education World University Rankings
. THE has stated that academic opinion will form part of its new offering.
On 3 June 2010, Times Higher Education revealed the methodology which they proposed to use when compiling the new world university rankings. The new methodology included 13 separate performance indicators, an increase from the six measures employed between 2004 and 2009. After further consultation the criteria were grouped under five broad overall indicators to produce the final ranking. THE published its first rankings using its new methodology on 16 September 2010, a month earlier than previous years.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings, along with the QS World University Rankings
and the Academic Ranking of World Universities
are described to be the three most influential international university rankings. The Globe and Mail
in 2010 described the Times Higher Education World University Rankings to be "arguably the most influential."
Research published by professors at the University of Michigan in 2011 demonstrated that the early THES rankings were disproportionately influential in establishing the status order of world research universities.
, Harvard University
, Stanford University
, University of Oxford
, Princeton University
, and the University of Cambridge
- were found to be 'head and shoulders above the rest', and were touted as a group of globally recognised "super brands".
in Turkey
and ranked 2,000 universities according to an aggregation of six academic research performance indicators: current productivity (number of published articles), long-term productivity (from Google Scholar
), research impact (citations from Institute for Scientific Information
), impact (cumulative journal impact), quality (H-index), and international collaboration.
The Webometrics
Ranking or Ranking Web is built from a database of over 20,000 higher education institutions. The top 12,000 universities are shown in the main ranking and more are covered in regional lists.
The ranking started in 2004 and is based on a composite indicator that includes both the volume of the Web contents and the visibility and impact of web publications according to the number of external links they received. A wide range of scientific activities appears exclusively on academic websites and is typically overlooked by bibliometric indicators.
Webometric indicators measure institutional commitment to Web publication. Webometric results show a high correlation with other rankings. However, North American universities are relatively common in the top 200, while small– and medium–size biomedical institutions and German, French, Italian and Japanese universities were less common in the top ranks. Possible reasons include publishing via independent research councils (CNRS, Max Planck, CNR) or the large amount of non-English web contents, which are less likely to be linked.
ranking is based on Essential Science Indicators (ESI), which provides data on journal article publication counts and citation frequencies in over 11,000 journals around the world in 22 research fields.
was ranked highest in 2010.
, and many others. There are also many rankings based on university billionaire alumni, such as Chinese university ranking of billionaire alumni
.
, Outlook
, Mint
, Dataquest
and EFY
conduct annual rankings for the major disciplines.
", or by alumni's successes. Especially, the Hensachi Rankings have been most commonly used for university rankings. One of the example of such rankings is Going broke universities - Disappearing universities
by Kiyoshi Shimano.
However, there are several rankings which evaluate universities' overall qualities. Toyo Keizai
regularly releases the university rankings "Truly Strong Universities
" once a year. Japanese leading prep school Kawaijuku also released the Japan's top 30 university rankings in natural sciences and technology for MEXT's GLOBAL 30 Project in 2001.
's Higher Education Commission
annually ranks domestic universities.
and the Commission on Higher Education
, based on the average passing rates in board tests.
compiled a list of the 22 universities in the EU with the highest scientific impact. This ranking was compiled as part of the Third European Report on Science & Technology Indicators, prepared by the Directorate General for Science and Research of the European Commission in 2003 (updated 2004). It only explicitly considers the European Union
's top institutions, but comparisons with the rest of the world are provided in the full report. The report says, "University College London comes out on top in both publications (the number of scientific publications produced by the university) and citations (the number of times those scientific publications are cited by other researchers)" however the table lists the top scoring university as "Univ London" indicating that the authors counted the scientific output of the entire University of London
, rather than its constituent colleges.
In this ranking, the EU's top two universities are Cambridge
and Oxford
, as in the Jiao Tong and Times rankings. This ranking stresses the scientific quality of the institution, as opposed to its size or perceived prestige. Thus smaller, technical universities, such as Eindhoven
(Netherlands) and University of Munich (Germany) are ranked third and forth, behind Cambridge, and followed by University of Edinburgh
. The report does not provide a direct comparison between EU and universities in the rest of the world—although it does compute a scientific impact score, measured against the world average.
In December 2008, the European Commission published a call for tenders, inviting bidders to design and test a new multi-dimensional university ranking system with global outreach. The first results of the envisaged pilot project were promised for the first half of 2011.
Another approach to classify the European research area is offered by 'European Research Ranking'. This ranking is based on publicly available data from the European Commissions project and funding database CORDIS to estimate the funding and networking performance of European research institutions.
and other popular magazines occasionally offer rankings of universities, "Grandes écoles
" and their preparatory schools, the "Prépas".
in English and German. The CHE Center for Higher Education Development gathers the data for this ranking. An English version is provided by the DAAD
.
The CHE also publishes a "ResearchRanking" showing the research strengths of German universities. The CHE ResearchRanking is based on the research–related data of the UniversityRanking.
ranks Irish universities based on a mix of criteria, including secondary school examination scores, graduation rates, staff-student ratio, research efficiency, accommodation, nontraditional students, athletics and sports facilities.
, in collaboration with CENSIS, compiles a ranking of Italian universities.
, Independent Rating Agency RatER, Interfax (in cooperation with Ekho Moskvy) and the Russian Journal "Finance".
RIA Novosty / Forbes rankings are conducted under the supervision of Public Chamber of Russia
in cooperation with State University – Higher School of Economics) This ranking is considered the most objective system. It covers 476 higher education institutions and is based on the average score of the Unified State Examination that is required to enter a university. The ranking has separate subrankings for different subjects and clusters of universities.
RIA Novosty's top 5 Russian universities are Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, State University – Higher School of Economics, Finance University under the Government of the Russian Federation and Voronezh State Medical Academy
. These are not the "conventional leaders" such as Moscow State University
and Saint Petersburg State University
which occupy 7th and 34th places respectively. Thus the ranking contradicts other local and international rankings such as Academic Ranking of World Universities
and QS World University Rankings
which take into account inherited reputation from the Soviet Union
.
Independent Rating Agency RatER publishes annual rankings based on representation of university graduates in governmental, education and business elite. Leading positions are usually occupied by Moscow State University
, Saint Petersburg State University
, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Moscow Aviation Institute
and Finance University under the Government of the Russian Federation.
Interfax annually ranks "classical" (or multi-faculty) universities and higher education institutions specialising in law
. Interfax' methodology quantifies several qualitative factors such as research, teaching standards, public opinion and social and international activity. Interfax lists Moscow State University
, Saint Petersburg State University
, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia
and Novosibirsk State University
as its top five.
The Russian Journal "Finance" produces an integrated ranking of higher education institutions specialising in economics and finance. The Journal uses the average score of the Unified State Examination, the number of CFO graduates and the consolidated turnover of companies where graduate CFOs are employed. This ranking lists Finance University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Moscow State University
, Saint Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance
, Moscow State Institute of International Relations and State University of Management in its top five.
's Ministry of Education and Science performs official yearly university evaluations. Zerkalo Nedeli
newspaper published the top 200–ranked Ukrainian universities in 2007.
Kyiv Student Council ranks universities on criteria of student satisfaction.
s (RAE) are the UK government's evaluation of research quality in British Universities. Each subject, called a unit of assessment, is ranked by a peer review panel. The rankings are used in the allocation of government funding. The latest assessment was made in 2008. The RAE provides quality ratings for research across all disciplines. Panels use a standard scale for each submission. Ratings range from 1 to 5, according to the quantity of work that is judged to reach national or international levels of excellence. Participating institutions receive grants from one of the four higher education funding bodies in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education
(QAA) assesses undergraduate teaching. QAA is an independent body established by the UK's higher education institutions in 1997. QAA was under contract to the Higher Education Funding Council for England
to assess quality for English universities. This replaced Teaching Quality Assessments (TQAs) which aimed to assess the administrative, policy and procedural framework within which teaching took place and did not directly assess teaching quality. This inspection–based system was replaced by a system of information provision, including a national student survey. QAA publishes scores which have been used by the league table industry.
Other rankings include Times Good University Guide, Independent
Complete University Guide, The Sunday Times University Guide, The Guardian—University Guide (mainly for undergraduate studies.)
, a Canadian news magazine, publishes an annual ranking of Canadian Universities, called the Maclean’s University Rankings. Ranking criteria include student body characteristics, classes, faculty, finances, library, and reputation. The rankings are split into three categories: schools that focus on undergraduate studies with few to no graduate programs, schools that have both extensive undergraduate studies and an extensive selection of graduate programs and schools that have a professional medical program and a selection of graduate programs.
The University of Calgary
produced a formal study examining the ranking methodology, illuminating the factors that determined its rank and criticizing certain aspects of the methodology. The University of Alberta
, the University of Toronto
and University of Manitoba
have expressed displeasure over the ranking system.
A notable difference between rankings in the United States and Maclean's rankings, however, is that Maclean's excludes privately–funded universities. However, the majority of Canada's institutions, including the best–known are publicly–funded.
Beginning in September 2006, over 20 Canadian universities, including several of the most prestigious and largest universities such as the University of Toronto
, University of British Columbia
, University of Alberta
, Concordia University
, McMaster University
and Dalhousie University
, jointly refused to participate. University of Alberta
president Indira Samarasekera
wrote that Maclean's initially filed a "Freedom of Information
" request but that it was "too late" for the universities to respond. Samarasekera further stated, "Most of [the universities] had already posted the data online, and we directed Maclean’s staff to our Web sites. In instances where the magazine staff couldn’t find data on our Web site, they chose to use the previous year’s data."
Mexican institutions have been compared in the Estudio Comparativo de Universidades Mexicanas (ECUM) produced within the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México(UNAM
). ECUM provides data on institutional participation in articles on ISI Web of Knowledge–indexed journals; faculty participation in each of Mexico's three–level National Researchers System (SNI); graduate degrees within (National Council of Science and Technology's (CONACYT) register of quality graduate programs; and number of academic research bodies (cuerpos academicos) according to the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP) program PROMEP.
ECUM provides online access to data for 2007 and 2008 through ExECUM. Institutional data can be visualized through three options:
ExECUM allows users to establish comparison types and levels which they consider relevant. Data is presented in raw form with virtually no derived indicators. Users can relate variables and build indicators according to their own analytical perspectives.
Based on this comparative study project, ECUM's creator, the Dirección General de Evaluación Institucional, published reports providing an analysis of the data for 2007 and 2008.
Referred to as the "granddaddy of the college rankings", America's best–known American college and university rankings have been compiled since 1983 by U.S. News & World Report
and are widely regarded as the most influential of all college rankings. This influence is partially attributed to the simple ranking system that U.S. News uses. The ranking order of universities has been shown to have great effect; a one-rank improvement leads to a 0.9% increase in number of applicants.
The US News rankings are based upon data which U.S. News collects from each educational institution either from an annual survey or from the school's website. It also considers opinion surveys of university faculty and administrators outside the school. The college rankings were published in all years thereafter, except 1984.
The National Research Council
ranks the doctoral research programmes of US universities, most recently in 1995. Data collection for an updated ranking began in 2006.
The Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index
by Academic Analytics ranks 354 institutions based on faculty publications, citations, research grants and awards.
The Center for Measuring University Performance
has ranked American research universities in the Top American Research Universities since 2000. The methodology is based on data such as research publications, citations, recognitions and funding, as well as undergraduate quality such as SAT scores. The information used can be found in public–accessible materials, reducing possibilities for manipulation. The methodology is generally consistent from year to year and changes are explained in the publication along with references from other studies.
The Washington Monthly
's "College Rankings", last published in 2010, began as a research report in 2005. Related rankings appeared in the September 2006 issue. It offers American university and college rankings based upon how well it enhances social mobility, fosters scientific and humanistic research and promotes an ethic of service.
TrendTopper MediaBuzz College Guide
is an American-college guide based on what it calls "Internet brand equity" based on data collected from the Internet and global media sources. It ranks the Top 300 United States colleges and universities. The guide includes specialty and for profit schools inncluding Art, Business, Design, Music, and Online Education. The TrendTopper MediaBuzz College Rankings are produced twice a year by the Global Language Monitor
of Austin
, Texas
.
Time Magazine described internet brand equity as "a measure of who's talking about you online, based on Internet data, social media, blogs and the top 75,000 print and electronic media outlets.
GLM ranks the schools "according to their online presence -- or internet brand equity ... By focusing on online presence, the Monitor hopes to avoid the biases that characterize other rankings, which commonly rely on the opinions of university officials and college counselors rather than that of the greater public." GLM believes the rankings provide an up-to-date perspective on which schools have the most popular brand. The resulting rankings gauge the relative value of the various institutions and how they change over time.
In 2008, Forbes.com
began publishing an annual list, prepared by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity of "America's Best Colleges". The Forbes rankings use the list of alumni published in Who's Who in America, student evaluations from RateMyProfessors.com
, self-reported salaries of alumni from PayScale
, four-year graduation rates, numbers of students and faculty receiving "nationally competitive awards," and four-year accumulated student debt to calculate the rankings. The list emphasizes tuition costs, which boosts the ratings of the zero-cost United States Service academies. It disregards subjective measures such as public reputation
, which causes some Ivy League
colleges to score lower than in other lists.
In 2009, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni
(ACTA) began grading colleges and universities based on the strength of their general education requirements. They assign a letter grade ranging from "A" to "F" to more than 700 four-year colleges and universities based on how many of seven subjects are required of students: composition, mathematics, intermediate-level foreign language, science, economics, literature and American government or history. This rating has been endorsed by Mel Elfin, founding editor of U.S. News & World Report’s rankings. New York Times higher education blogger Stanley Fish
, while agreeing that universities ought to have a strong core curriculum, disagreed with some of the subjects ACTA includes in the core. As of 2010, only 16 universities had earned an "A".
Avery et al. pioneered the use of choice modelling
to rank colleges. Their methodology used a statistical analysis of the decisions of 3,240 students who applied to college in 1999. MyChances.net adopted a similar approach starting in 2009, stating that its method is based on this approach. The study analysed students admitted to multiple colleges. The college they attended became the winner, and the others became the losers. An Elo rating system
was used to assign points based on each win or loss, and the colleges were ranked based on their Elo points. A useful consequence of the use of Elo points is that they can be used to estimate the frequency with which students, upon being admitted to two schools, will choose one over the other.
Other organizations that rank US institutions include the Fiske Guide to Colleges and College Prowler
. Many specialized rankings are available in guidebooks, considering individual student interests, fields of study, geographical location, financial aid and affordability.
Among the rankings dealing with individual fields of study is the Philosophical Gourmet Report
or "Leiter Report", a ranking of philosophy
departments. This report has attracted criticism from different viewpoints. Notably, practitioners of continental philosophy
, who perceive the Leiter report as unfair to their field, have compiled alternative rankings.
The Gourman Report
, last published in 1996, ranked the quality of undergraduate majors and graduate programs.
Gallup polls ask American adults, "All in all, what would you say is the best college or university in the United States?"
The Princeton Review, annually publishes a book of Best Colleges. In 2011, this was titled The Best 373 Colleges. Phi Beta Kappa has also sought to establish chapters at the best schools, lately numbering 280.
Various rankings consider measures of research excellence and/or influence, student choices, eventual success and/or demographics, on surveys, and others. Some rankings evaluate institutions within a single country, while others assess institutions worldwide. The subject has produced much debate about rankings' usefulness and accuracy. The expanding diversity in rating methodologies and accompanying criticisms of each indicate the lack of consensus in the field.
Rankings are often consulted by prospective students in the university and college admissions process.
Academic Ranking of World Universities
The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) compiled by the Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityShanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai Jiao Tong University or SJTU), sometimes referred to as Shanghai Jiaotong University , is a top public research university located in Shanghai, China. Shanghai Jiao Tong University is known as one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China...
and now maintained by the Shanghai Rankings Consultancy, has provided annual global rankings of universities since 2003, making it the earliest of its kind. Its initial purpose was to measure the gap between Chinese and "world class" universities. ARWU rankings have been cited by The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
magazine. It has been lauded for being "consistent and transparent". The education ministers of France, Norway and Denmark traveled to Jiaotong University to discuss and find ways to improve their rankings.
ARWU does not rely on surveys and school submissions. Among other criteria, ARWU includes the number of articles published by Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
or Science
Science (journal)
Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....
and the number of Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winners and Fields Medal
Fields Medal
The Fields Medal, officially known as International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians not over 40 years of age at each International Congress of the International Mathematical Union , a meeting that takes place every four...
ists (mathematics).
One of the primary criticisms of ARWU's methodology is that it is biased towards the natural science
Natural science
The natural sciences are branches of science that seek to elucidate the rules that govern the natural world by using empirical and scientific methods...
s and English language science journals over other subjects. In addition to the criticisms, a 2007 paper from the peer-reviewed journal Scientometrics
Scientometrics (journal)
Scientometrics is a peer reviewed journal in the field of scientometrics. It is currently published by Akadémiai Kiadó and Springer Science+Business Media and has appeared continuously since 1978....
suggested that the results could not be independently reproduced.
G-factor
G-factor ranks university and college web presence by counting the number of links only from other university websites, using GoogleGoogle
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
search engine
Search engine
A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information...
data. G-factor is an indicator of the popularity or importance of each university's website from the combined perspectives of other institutions. It claims to be an objective peer review of a university through its website—in social network theory terminology, G-factor measures the centrality of each university's website in the network
Network theory
Network theory is an area of computer science and network science and part of graph theory. It has application in many disciplines including statistical physics, particle physics, computer science, biology, economics, operations research, and sociology...
of university websites.
Global University Ranking
Global University Ranking measures over 400 universities using the RatER, an autonomous, non-commercial, Russian rating agency supported by Russia's academic society. The methodology pools universities from ARWU, HEEACT, Times-QS and Webometrics and a pool of experts formed by project officials and managers to determine the rating scales for indicators in seven areas. It considers academic performance, research performance, faculty expertise, resource availability, socially significant activities of graduates, international activities, and international opinion. Each expert independently evaluates these performance indicators for candidate universities. The rating is the average of the expert evaluations. This ranking raised questions when it placed Moscow State UniversityMoscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
in fifth place, ahead of Harvard and Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
.
HEEACT—Ranking of Scientific Papers
The Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities is produced by the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of TaiwanHigher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan
Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan was founded in May 2005. HEEACT applied for ISO certification in July 2008 and received certification on February 4, 2009...
(HEEACT). HEEACT is designed to assess research universities. The indicators are designed to measure both long-term and short-term research performance.
This project employs bibliometrics
Bibliometrics
Bibliometrics is a set of methods to quantitatively analyze scientific and technological literature. Citation analysis and content analysis are commonly used bibliometric methods...
to analyze and rank the performance of the 500 top universities and the top 300 universities in six fields. HEEACT further provides subject rankings in science and technology fields. It also rank the top 300 universities across ten science and technology fields.
The ranking includes eight indicators. They are: articles published over prior 11 years; citations of those articles, "current" articles, current citations, average citations, "H-index", number of "highly–cited papers" and high impact journal articles. They represent three criteria of scientific papers performance: research productivity, research impact, and research excellence.
The 2007 ranking methodology was alleged to have favored universities with medical schools, and in response, HEEACT added assessment criteria. The six field–based rankings are based on the subject categorization of WOS, including Agriculture & Environment Sciences (AGE), Clinical Medicine (MED), Engineering, Computing & Technology (ENG), Life Sciences (LIFE), Natural Sciences (SCI) and Social Sciences (SOC). The ten subjects include Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Geosciences, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering (including Energy & Fuels), Materials Sciences, and Civil Engineering (including Environmental Engineering).
High Impact Universities: Research Performance Index
The High Impact Universities Research Performance Index (RPI) is a 2010 Australian initiative that studies university research performance. The pilot project involved a trial of over 1,000 universities or institutions and 5,000 constituent faculties (in various disciplines) worldwide. The top 500 results for universities and faculties were reported at the project website. The project promotes simplicity, transparency and fairness. The assessment analyzes research performance as measured by publications and citations. Publication and citation data is drawn from ScopusScopus
Scopus, officially named SciVerse Scopus, is a bibliographic database containing abstracts and citations for academic journal articles. It covers nearly 18,000 titles from over 5,000 international publishers, including coverage of 16,500 peer-reviewed journals in the scientific, technical, medical,...
. The project uses standard bibliometric indicators, namely the 10-year g-index
G-index
The g-index is an index for quantifying scientific productivity based on publication record. It was suggested in 2006 by Leo Egghe.The index is calculated based on the distribution of citations received by a given researcher's publications:...
and h-index
H-index
The h-index is an index that attempts to measure both the productivity and impact of the published work of a scientist or scholar. The index is based on the set of the scientist's most cited papers and the number of citations that they have received in other publications...
. RPI equally weighs contributions from the five faculties. The five faculty scores are normalized
Normalization (statistics)
In one usage in statistics, normalization is the process of isolating statistical error in repeated measured data. A normalization is sometimes based on a property...
to place them onto a common scale. The normalized scores are then averaged to arrive at a final RPI.
Human Resources & Labor Review
The Human Resources & Labor Review (HRLR) publishes a human competitiveness index & analysis annually in Chasecareer Network (ChaseCareer.Net). This system is based on Human Resources & Labour Review Indexes (HRI and LRI), which measure the top 300 universities' graduates' performance.Leiden Rankings
The Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden UniversityLeiden University
Leiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Leiden University still have a close...
maintains a European and world wide ranking of the top 500 universities according including the number and impact of Web of Science-indexed publications per year. The rankings compare research institutions by taking into account differences in language, discipline and institutional size. Multiple ranking lists are released according to various bibliometric normalization and impact indicators, including the number of publications, citations-per-publication, publications per impact, and field-averaged impact per publication.
Newsweek
In August 2006, the American magazine NewsweekNewsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
published a ranking of the Top 100 Global Universities, using selected criteria from ARWU and the Times Higher Education-QS rankings, with the additional criterion of the number of volumes in the library. It formed part of a special issue including an article from Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
, then prime minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
of the UK, but has not been repeated. It considered openness and diversity as well as distinction in research.
Professional Ranking of World Universities
In contrast to academic rankings, the Professional Ranking of World Universities established in 2007 by the École nationale supérieure des mines de ParisÉcole nationale supérieure des mines de Paris
The École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris was created in 1783 by King Louis XVI in order to train intelligent directors of mines. It is one of the most prominent French engineering schoolsThe École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris (also known as Mines ParisTech, École des Mines de...
measures the efficiency of each university at producing leading business professionals. Its main compilation criterion is the number of Chief Executive Officer
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
s (or equivalent) in the among the Fortune Global 500
Fortune Global 500
The Fortune Global 500 is a ranking of the top 500 corporations worldwide as measured by revenue. The list is compiled and published annually by Fortune magazine....
. This ranking has been criticized for placing five French universities into the top 20.
QS World University Rankings
The QS World University Rankings are a ranking of the world’s top universities produced by Quacquarelli SymondsQuacquarelli Symonds
Quacquarelli Symonds is a company specializing in education and study abroad. The company was founded in 1990 by Wharton School MBA graduate Nunzio Quacquarelli...
and published annually since 2004. In 2011 they ranked 712 universities, with the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
in the UK, the Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in the USA and the McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
in Canada on top. The QS rankings should not be confused with the Times Higher Education World University Rankings
Times Higher Education World University Rankings
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings is an international ranking of universities published by the British magazine Times Higher Education in partnership with Thomson Reuters, which provided citation database information...
. From 2004 to 2009 the QS rankings were published in collaboration with Times Higher Education and were known as the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings. In 2010 QS assumed sole publication of rankings produced with this methodology when Times Higher Education split from QS in order to create a new rankings methodology in partnership with Thomson Reuters. The QS rankings are published in the United States by US News & World Report as the "World's Best Universities."
The QS rankings use peer review data collected (in 2011) from 33,744 scholars and academics and 16,785 recruiters. These two are worth 40 per cent and 10 per cent of a university's possible score. The QS rankings also incorporate citation per faculty member data from Scopus
Scopus
Scopus, officially named SciVerse Scopus, is a bibliographic database containing abstracts and citations for academic journal articles. It covers nearly 18,000 titles from over 5,000 international publishers, including coverage of 16,500 peer-reviewed journals in the scientific, technical, medical,...
,, faculty/student ratios, and international staff and student numbers. The citations and faculty/student measures are worth 20 per cent of an institution's total score and the international staff and student data five per cent each. QS has published online material about its methodology http://iu.qs.com/projects-and-services/world-university-rankings/.
QS published the 2011 QS World University Rankings
QS World University Rankings
The QS World University Rankings is a ranking of the world’s top 500 universities by Quacquarelli Symonds using a method that has published annually since 2004....
online on September 6, 2011. The rankings also appear in book form, and via media partners including US News & World Report and Chosun Ibo.
QS has added to its main World University Rankings, starting in 2009 with the Asian University Rankings http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/asian-university-rankings/2011. The QS Latin American University Rankings http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/latin-american-university-rankings/2011 and the QS World University Rankings by Subject http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings were published for the first time in 2011.
The subject rankings are intended to address the most frequent criticism of all world university ranking systems, that they contain too little material about specific subjects, something potential applicants are keen to see. These rankings have been drawn up on the basis of citations, academic peer review and recruiter review, with the weightings for each dependent upon the culture and practice of the subject concerned. They are published in five clusters; engineering; biomedicine; the natural sciences; the social sciences; and the arts and humanities, and cover 26 subjects.
SCImago Institutions Rankings
The SCImago Institutions Rankings (SIR) since 2009 has published its international ranking of worldwide research institutions, the SIR World Report. The SIR World Report is the work of the SCImago Research Group, a Spain-based research organization consist of members from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), University of GranadaUniversity of Granada
The University of Granada is a public university located in Granada, Spain that enrolls approximately 80,000 students. The university also has campuses in Ceuta and Melilla. Every year, over 2,000 European students enroll in the UGR through the Erasmus Programme, making it the most popular...
, Charles III University of Madrid, University of Alcalá
University of Alcalá
The University of Alcalá is a public university located in Alcalá de Henares, a city 35 km northeast of Madrid in Spain. Founded in 1499, it was moved in 1836 to Madrid. In 1977, the University was reopened in its same historical buildings...
, University of Extremadura
University of Extremadura
University of Extremadura is a Spanish public university in Extremadura .-External links:*...
and other education institutions in Spain.
The ranking measures areas such as: research output, international collaboration, normalized impact and publication rate.
Times Higher Education World University Rankings
From 2004 to 2009 Times Higher Education (THE), a British publication, published the annual THE–QS World University Rankings (WUR) in association with Quacquarelli SymondsQuacquarelli Symonds
Quacquarelli Symonds is a company specializing in education and study abroad. The company was founded in 1990 by Wharton School MBA graduate Nunzio Quacquarelli...
(QS). THE published a table of the top 200 universities and QS ranked approximately 500 online, in book form, and via media partners. On 30 October 2009, THE broke with QS and joined Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters Corporation is a provider of information for the world's businesses and professionals and is created by the Thomson Corporation's purchase of Reuters Group on 17 April 2008. Thomson Reuters is headquartered at 3 Times Square, New York City, USA...
to provide a new set of world university rankings, called Times Higher Education World University Rankings
Times Higher Education World University Rankings
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings is an international ranking of universities published by the British magazine Times Higher Education in partnership with Thomson Reuters, which provided citation database information...
. THE has stated that academic opinion will form part of its new offering.
On 3 June 2010, Times Higher Education revealed the methodology which they proposed to use when compiling the new world university rankings. The new methodology included 13 separate performance indicators, an increase from the six measures employed between 2004 and 2009. After further consultation the criteria were grouped under five broad overall indicators to produce the final ranking. THE published its first rankings using its new methodology on 16 September 2010, a month earlier than previous years.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings, along with the QS World University Rankings
QS World University Rankings
The QS World University Rankings is a ranking of the world’s top 500 universities by Quacquarelli Symonds using a method that has published annually since 2004....
and the Academic Ranking of World Universities
Academic Ranking of World Universities
The Academic Ranking of World Universities , commonly known as the Shanghai ranking, is a publication that was founded and compiled by the Shanghai Jiaotong University to rank universities globally. The rankings have been conducted since 2003 and updated annually...
are described to be the three most influential international university rankings. The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
in 2010 described the Times Higher Education World University Rankings to be "arguably the most influential."
Research published by professors at the University of Michigan in 2011 demonstrated that the early THES rankings were disproportionately influential in establishing the status order of world research universities.
Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings
Published for the first time in March 2011, the rankings are based on a survey of 13,388 academics over 131 countries - which is the largest evaluation of academic reputation to date. The survey was conducted in eight languages by Ipsos Media CT for Times Higher Education's ranking-data partner Thomson Reuters, and asked experienced academics to highlight what they believed to be the strongest universities for teaching and research in their own fields. The top six universities in the ranking - California Institute of TechnologyCalifornia Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
, Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, and the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
- were found to be 'head and shoulders above the rest', and were touted as a group of globally recognised "super brands".
U-Multirank
U-Multirank, a European Commission supported project, will contribute to the EU objective of enhancing transparency about the different missions and the performance of higher education institutions and research institutes. It is due to be completed in June, 2011.University Ranking By Academic Performance
First published in 2010, the University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP) was developed in the Informatics Institute of Middle East Technical UniversityMiddle East Technical University
Middle East Technical University is a public technical university located in Ankara, Turkey...
in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
and ranked 2,000 universities according to an aggregation of six academic research performance indicators: current productivity (number of published articles), long-term productivity (from Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes most peer-reviewed online journals of Europe and America's largest...
), research impact (citations from Institute for Scientific Information
Institute for Scientific Information
The Institute for Scientific Information was founded by Eugene Garfield in 1960. It was acquired by Thomson Scientific & Healthcare in 1992, became known as Thomson ISI and now is part of the Healthcare & Science business of the multi-billion dollar Thomson Reuters Corporation.ISI offered...
), impact (cumulative journal impact), quality (H-index), and international collaboration.
Webometrics
The Webometrics Ranking of World Universities is produced by Cybermetrics Lab (CCHS), a unit of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the main public research body in Spain. It offers information about more than 12,000 universities according to their web presence (an assessment of the scholarly contents, visibility and impact of universities on the web). The ranking is updated every January and July.The Webometrics
Webometrics
The science of webometrics tries to measure the World Wide Web to get knowledge about the number and types of hyperlinks, structure of the World Wide Web and usage patterns...
Ranking or Ranking Web is built from a database of over 20,000 higher education institutions. The top 12,000 universities are shown in the main ranking and more are covered in regional lists.
The ranking started in 2004 and is based on a composite indicator that includes both the volume of the Web contents and the visibility and impact of web publications according to the number of external links they received. A wide range of scientific activities appears exclusively on academic websites and is typically overlooked by bibliometric indicators.
Webometric indicators measure institutional commitment to Web publication. Webometric results show a high correlation with other rankings. However, North American universities are relatively common in the top 200, while small– and medium–size biomedical institutions and German, French, Italian and Japanese universities were less common in the top ranks. Possible reasons include publishing via independent research councils (CNRS, Max Planck, CNR) or the large amount of non-English web contents, which are less likely to be linked.
Wuhan University
The Research Center for Chinese Science Evaluation at Wuhan UniversityWuhan University
Wuhan University is a university located in Wuchang, Hubei, China. It is directly under the administration of the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. It is regarded as one of the top ten universities in China, and its history dates back to 1893, making it one of China's...
ranking is based on Essential Science Indicators (ESI), which provides data on journal article publication counts and citation frequencies in over 11,000 journals around the world in 22 research fields.
Regional and national rankings
Regional and national rankings are carried out in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Oceania.Asia
QS' Asian University Rankings use some of the same data as the QS World University Rankings alongside other material, such as the number of exchange students attending or traveling from each university. The rankings list the top 200 universities in Asia. The University of Hong KongThe University of Hong Kong
The University of Hong Kong is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. Its motto is "Sapientia et Virtus" in Latin, meaning "wisdom and virtue", and "" in Chinese...
was ranked highest in 2010.
China
Many academic organizations in China rank universities, such as Chinese University Alumni Association (CUAA) and China Education Center Ltd. the Chinese university rankingsChinese university ranking (Chinese Academy of Management Science)
The Chinese university ranking is a ranking of universities in Mainland China compiled by Wu Shulian, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Management Science.-Introduction:...
, and many others. There are also many rankings based on university billionaire alumni, such as Chinese university ranking of billionaire alumni
Chinese university ranking of billionaire alumni
In first decade of the 21st century, many Chinese media have been very active in making ranking lists for Chinese colleges and universities according to the number of billionaires they have produced....
.
India
Magazines such as India TodayIndia Today
India Today is an Indian weekly news magazine published by Living Media India Limited, in publication since 1975 based in Mumbai. India Today is also the name of its sister-publication in Hindi...
, Outlook
Outlook (magazine)
Outlook is one of India's four top-selling English weekly newsmagazines. Like many other Indian magazines, it is reluctant to reveal its circulation, but the 2007 National Readership Survey suggested 1.5 million copies...
, Mint
Mint (newspaper)
Mint is a business newspaper from HT Media Ltd, launched in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal on 1 February 2007. It is a premium business news publication aimed at decision makers and policy makers of the country and it is the first newspaper in India to be published in the Berliner...
, Dataquest
Dataquest
Dataquest is India's oldest IT publication. A fortnightly, Dataquest is published by Cyber Media India Ltd, South Asia's largest specialty media group. The magazine targets senior IT managers in user organizations as well as the IT industry professionals in India.Dataquest has grown with the Indian...
and EFY
Electronics For You
Electronics For You, also known as EFY, is an Indian technology-oriented magazine owned by EFY Enterprises. It has been in publication since 1969....
conduct annual rankings for the major disciplines.
Japan
Most of the ranking systems in Japan rank universities by their entrance difficulties, often called "HensachiStandard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
", or by alumni's successes. Especially, the Hensachi Rankings have been most commonly used for university rankings. One of the example of such rankings is Going broke universities - Disappearing universities
Going broke universities - Disappearing universities
The Going broke universities - Disappearing universities is a ranking book about Japanese Universities by Japanese journalist Kiyoshi Shimano, published annually since 1993....
by Kiyoshi Shimano.
However, there are several rankings which evaluate universities' overall qualities. Toyo Keizai
Toyo Keizai
is a book and magazine publisher specializing in politics, economics and business, based in Tokyo, Japan.The company is famous for established in 1895, one of three Japanese leading business magazines ranked with published by Nikkei Business Publications and published by DIAMOND.- External...
regularly releases the university rankings "Truly Strong Universities
Truly Strong Universities
The Truly Strong Universities is a ranking of the Japan’s top 100 universities by Toyo Keizai, released annually in October on its business magazine "Toyo Keizai"....
" once a year. Japanese leading prep school Kawaijuku also released the Japan's top 30 university rankings in natural sciences and technology for MEXT's GLOBAL 30 Project in 2001.
Pakistan
PakistanPakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
's Higher Education Commission
Higher Education Commission
The Higher Education Commission , formerly the University Grant Commission, is the primary regulator of higher education in Pakistan. It also facilitated the development of higher educational system in Pakistan. Its main purpose was to upgrade universities in Pakistan to be centres of education,...
annually ranks domestic universities.
Philippines
Academic rankings in the Philippines are conducted by the Professional Regulation CommissionProfessional Regulation Commission
The Professional Regulation Commission , otherwise known as the PRC, is a three-man commission attached to the office of the President of the Republic of the Philippines. Its mandate is to regulate and supervise the practice of the professionals who constitute the highly skilled manpower of the...
and the Commission on Higher Education
Commission on Higher Education (Philippines)
The Commission on Higher Education of the Philippines, , abbreviated as CHED. The CHED is attached to the Office of the President for administrative purposes...
, based on the average passing rates in board tests.
South Korea
Korean Council for University Education, established in 2009, evaluates universities in South Korea.European Union
The European CommissionEuropean Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
compiled a list of the 22 universities in the EU with the highest scientific impact. This ranking was compiled as part of the Third European Report on Science & Technology Indicators, prepared by the Directorate General for Science and Research of the European Commission in 2003 (updated 2004). It only explicitly considers the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
's top institutions, but comparisons with the rest of the world are provided in the full report. The report says, "University College London comes out on top in both publications (the number of scientific publications produced by the university) and citations (the number of times those scientific publications are cited by other researchers)" however the table lists the top scoring university as "Univ London" indicating that the authors counted the scientific output of the entire University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
, rather than its constituent colleges.
In this ranking, the EU's top two universities are Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
and Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, as in the Jiao Tong and Times rankings. This ranking stresses the scientific quality of the institution, as opposed to its size or perceived prestige. Thus smaller, technical universities, such as Eindhoven
Eindhoven University of Technology
The ' is a university of technology located in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The motto of the university is: Mens agitat molem . The university was the second of its kind in the Netherlands, only Delft University of Technology existed previously. Until mid-1980 it was known as the...
(Netherlands) and University of Munich (Germany) are ranked third and forth, behind Cambridge, and followed by University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
. The report does not provide a direct comparison between EU and universities in the rest of the world—although it does compute a scientific impact score, measured against the world average.
In December 2008, the European Commission published a call for tenders, inviting bidders to design and test a new multi-dimensional university ranking system with global outreach. The first results of the envisaged pilot project were promised for the first half of 2011.
Another approach to classify the European research area is offered by 'European Research Ranking'. This ranking is based on publicly available data from the European Commissions project and funding database CORDIS to estimate the funding and networking performance of European research institutions.
Austria
Some Austrian Universities, including all Austrian Universities of Applied Science, take part in the CHE UniversityRanking.Bulgaria
The Bulgarian University Ranking System, maintained by the Bulgarian Ministry of Education, compares academic programs in accredited domestic higher education institutions. The system ranks programs based on more than 50 indicators, such as teaching and learning conditions, scientific research, career development opportunities, prestige, and material resources. According to 2010 results, the American University in Bulgaria led all universities in terms of graduates’ employability and income.France
Le Nouvel ObservateurLe Nouvel Observateur
Le Nouvel Observateur is a weekly French newsmagazine. Based in Paris, it is the most prominent French general information magazine in terms of audience and circulation ....
and other popular magazines occasionally offer rankings of universities, "Grandes écoles
Grandes écoles
The grandes écoles of France are higher education establishments outside the main framework of the French university system. The grandes écoles select students for admission based chiefly on national ranking in competitive written and oral exams...
" and their preparatory schools, the "Prépas".
Germany
Since 2007, the CHE "ExcellenceRanking" has been published by the Center for Higher Education Development in Germany. The ranking includes the sciences of biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics as well as psychology, political science and economics. The ranking is designed to support the search for masters or doctoral programmes. The CHE also wants to highlight the research strengths of European universities and provide them with ideas for improvement. The ranking is published by the German weekly newspaper Die ZeitDie Zeit
Die Zeit is a German nationwide weekly newspaper that is highly respected for its quality journalism.With a circulation of 488,036 and an estimated readership of slightly above 2 million, it is the most widely read German weekly newspaper...
in English and German. The CHE Center for Higher Education Development gathers the data for this ranking. An English version is provided by the DAAD
German Academic Exchange Service
The German Academic Exchange Service or DAAD is the largest German support organisation in the field of international academic co-operation....
.
The CHE also publishes a "ResearchRanking" showing the research strengths of German universities. The CHE ResearchRanking is based on the research–related data of the UniversityRanking.
Ireland
The Sunday TimesThe Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
ranks Irish universities based on a mix of criteria, including secondary school examination scores, graduation rates, staff-student ratio, research efficiency, accommodation, nontraditional students, athletics and sports facilities.
Italy
Every year La RepubblicaLa Repubblica
la Repubblica is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Founded in 1976 in Rome by the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, as of 2008 is the second largest circulation newspaper, behind the Corriere della Sera.-Foundation:...
, in collaboration with CENSIS, compiles a ranking of Italian universities.
Romania
The Ad Astra association of Romanian scientists ranked Romanian universities in 2006 and 2007.Russia
Several bodies rank Russian universities, including RIA Novosti / ForbesForbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
, Independent Rating Agency RatER, Interfax (in cooperation with Ekho Moskvy) and the Russian Journal "Finance".
RIA Novosty / Forbes rankings are conducted under the supervision of Public Chamber of Russia
Public Chamber of Russia
The Public Chamber is a state institution with 126 members created in 2005 in Russia to analyze draft legislation and monitor the activities of the parliament, government and other government bodies of Russia and its Federal Subjects. It has a role similar to an oversight committee and has...
in cooperation with State University – Higher School of Economics) This ranking is considered the most objective system. It covers 476 higher education institutions and is based on the average score of the Unified State Examination that is required to enter a university. The ranking has separate subrankings for different subjects and clusters of universities.
RIA Novosty's top 5 Russian universities are Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, State University – Higher School of Economics, Finance University under the Government of the Russian Federation and Voronezh State Medical Academy
Voronezh State Medical Academy
Voronezh State Medical Academy also called Voronezh N. N. Burdenko State Medical Academy is located in Voronezh, Russia.-Overview:Founded in 1802 as the Derpt University foundation, in 1918 the university was moved to Voronezh...
. These are not the "conventional leaders" such as Moscow State University
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
and Saint Petersburg State University
Saint Petersburg State University
Saint Petersburg State University is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg and one of the oldest and largest universities in Russia....
which occupy 7th and 34th places respectively. Thus the ranking contradicts other local and international rankings such as Academic Ranking of World Universities
Academic Ranking of World Universities
The Academic Ranking of World Universities , commonly known as the Shanghai ranking, is a publication that was founded and compiled by the Shanghai Jiaotong University to rank universities globally. The rankings have been conducted since 2003 and updated annually...
and QS World University Rankings
QS World University Rankings
The QS World University Rankings is a ranking of the world’s top 500 universities by Quacquarelli Symonds using a method that has published annually since 2004....
which take into account inherited reputation from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
.
Independent Rating Agency RatER publishes annual rankings based on representation of university graduates in governmental, education and business elite. Leading positions are usually occupied by Moscow State University
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
, Saint Petersburg State University
Saint Petersburg State University
Saint Petersburg State University is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg and one of the oldest and largest universities in Russia....
, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Moscow Aviation Institute
Moscow Aviation Institute
Moscow Aviation Institute is one of several major engineering higher education establishments in Moscow .Although the school is currently offering a wide range of majors and research...
and Finance University under the Government of the Russian Federation.
Interfax annually ranks "classical" (or multi-faculty) universities and higher education institutions specialising in law
Law school
A law school is an institution specializing in legal education.- Law degrees :- Canada :...
. Interfax' methodology quantifies several qualitative factors such as research, teaching standards, public opinion and social and international activity. Interfax lists Moscow State University
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
, Saint Petersburg State University
Saint Petersburg State University
Saint Petersburg State University is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg and one of the oldest and largest universities in Russia....
, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia
Peoples' Friendship University of Russia
The Peoples' Friendship University of Russia is an educational and research institution located in the South of Moscow and is ranked by the Ministry of Education of Russia as the country's third-best university after Moscow State University and Saint Petersburg State University...
and Novosibirsk State University
Novosibirsk State University
Novosibirsk State University was founded in May 1959 in the USSR by Soviet academicians Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrentiev, Sergei Lvovich Sobolev and Sergey Alekseyevich Khristianovich in a program of establishing a Siberian branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences...
as its top five.
The Russian Journal "Finance" produces an integrated ranking of higher education institutions specialising in economics and finance. The Journal uses the average score of the Unified State Examination, the number of CFO graduates and the consolidated turnover of companies where graduate CFOs are employed. This ranking lists Finance University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Moscow State University
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
, Saint Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance
Saint Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance
Saint Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance was established in 1930 as "Leningrad Institute of Finance and Economics"...
, Moscow State Institute of International Relations and State University of Management in its top five.
Switzerland
The swissUp Ranking ranked Swiss university and polytechnic students until 2004. The swissUp Ranking is no longer conducted. Some universities from the German speaking part of Switzerland, such as ISFOA Lugano take part in the CHE UniversityRanking.Ukraine
UkraineUkraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
's Ministry of Education and Science performs official yearly university evaluations. Zerkalo Nedeli
Zerkalo Nedeli
Zerkalo Nedeli , usually referred to in English as the Mirror Weekly, is one of Ukraine’s most influential analytical newspapers published weekly in Kiev, the nation's capital. It was founded in 1994, and as of 2006 its print circulation was 57,000. It offers political analysis, original...
newspaper published the top 200–ranked Ukrainian universities in 2007.
Kyiv Student Council ranks universities on criteria of student satisfaction.
United Kingdom
The Research Assessment ExerciseResearch Assessment Exercise
The Research Assessment Exercise is an exercise undertaken approximately every 5 years on behalf of the four UK higher education funding councils to evaluate the quality of research undertaken by British higher education institutions...
s (RAE) are the UK government's evaluation of research quality in British Universities. Each subject, called a unit of assessment, is ranked by a peer review panel. The rankings are used in the allocation of government funding. The latest assessment was made in 2008. The RAE provides quality ratings for research across all disciplines. Panels use a standard scale for each submission. Ratings range from 1 to 5, according to the quantity of work that is judged to reach national or international levels of excellence. Participating institutions receive grants from one of the four higher education funding bodies in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education
Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education
Established in 1997, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education works to ensure that higher education qualifications in the United Kingdom are of a sound standard. It protects the public interest by checking how universities and colleges maintain their academic standards and quality...
(QAA) assesses undergraduate teaching. QAA is an independent body established by the UK's higher education institutions in 1997. QAA was under contract to the Higher Education Funding Council for England
Higher Education Funding Council for England
The Higher Education Funding Council for England is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in the United Kingdom, which has been responsible for the distribution of funding to Universities and Colleges of Higher and Further Education in England since...
to assess quality for English universities. This replaced Teaching Quality Assessments (TQAs) which aimed to assess the administrative, policy and procedural framework within which teaching took place and did not directly assess teaching quality. This inspection–based system was replaced by a system of information provision, including a national student survey. QAA publishes scores which have been used by the league table industry.
Other rankings include Times Good University Guide, Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
Complete University Guide, The Sunday Times University Guide, The Guardian—University Guide (mainly for undergraduate studies.)
Canada
Maclean'sMaclean's
Maclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...
, a Canadian news magazine, publishes an annual ranking of Canadian Universities, called the Maclean’s University Rankings. Ranking criteria include student body characteristics, classes, faculty, finances, library, and reputation. The rankings are split into three categories: schools that focus on undergraduate studies with few to no graduate programs, schools that have both extensive undergraduate studies and an extensive selection of graduate programs and schools that have a professional medical program and a selection of graduate programs.
The University of Calgary
University of Calgary
The University of Calgary is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1966 the U of C is composed of 14 faculties and more than 85 research institutes and centres.More than 25,000 undergraduate and 5,500 graduate students are currently...
produced a formal study examining the ranking methodology, illuminating the factors that determined its rank and criticizing certain aspects of the methodology. The University of Alberta
University of Alberta
The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...
, the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
and University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
have expressed displeasure over the ranking system.
A notable difference between rankings in the United States and Maclean's rankings, however, is that Maclean's excludes privately–funded universities. However, the majority of Canada's institutions, including the best–known are publicly–funded.
Beginning in September 2006, over 20 Canadian universities, including several of the most prestigious and largest universities such as the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
, University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
, University of Alberta
University of Alberta
The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...
, Concordia University
Concordia University
Concordia University is a comprehensive Canadian public university located in Montreal, Quebec, one of the two universities in the city where English is the primary language of instruction...
, McMaster University
McMaster University
McMaster University is a public research university whose main campus is located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land in the residential neighbourhood of Westdale, adjacent to Hamilton's Royal Botanical Gardens...
and Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University is a public research university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university comprises eleven faculties including Schulich School of Law and Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine. It also includes the faculties of architecture, planning and engineering located at...
, jointly refused to participate. University of Alberta
University of Alberta
The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...
president Indira Samarasekera
Indira Samarasekera
Indira Vasanti Samarasekera, OC is the 12th and current President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Alberta. Succeeding Roderick Fraser on July 1, 2005, she was the first female president of any university in Alberta.-Biography:...
wrote that Maclean's initially filed a "Freedom of Information
Freedom of information
Freedom of information refers to the protection of the right to freedom of expression with regards to the Internet and information technology . Freedom of information may also concern censorship in an information technology context, i.e...
" request but that it was "too late" for the universities to respond. Samarasekera further stated, "Most of [the universities] had already posted the data online, and we directed Maclean’s staff to our Web sites. In instances where the magazine staff couldn’t find data on our Web site, they chose to use the previous year’s data."
Estudio Comparativo de Universidades Mexicanas (ECUM)
Mexican institutions have been compared in the Estudio Comparativo de Universidades Mexicanas (ECUM) produced within the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México(UNAM
Unam
UNAM or UNaM may refer to:* National University of Misiones, a National University in Posadas, Argentina*National Autonomous University of Mexico , the large public autonomous university based in Mexico City...
). ECUM provides data on institutional participation in articles on ISI Web of Knowledge–indexed journals; faculty participation in each of Mexico's three–level National Researchers System (SNI); graduate degrees within (National Council of Science and Technology's (CONACYT) register of quality graduate programs; and number of academic research bodies (cuerpos academicos) according to the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP) program PROMEP.
ECUM provides online access to data for 2007 and 2008 through ExECUM. Institutional data can be visualized through three options:
- A selection of the most prominent 58 universities (43 publics and 13 privates). This selection accounts for more than 60 percent of undergraduate and graduate enrollments. It includes public federal universities (UNAMUnamUNAM or UNaM may refer to:* National University of Misiones, a National University in Posadas, Argentina*National Autonomous University of Mexico , the large public autonomous university based in Mexico City...
, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Universidad Autónoma MetropolitanaUniversidad Autónoma MetropolitanaThe Metropolitan Autonomous University is a public university located in Mexico City, Mexico...
, Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, Universidad del Ejército y la Fuerza Aérea, Colegio de México, Universidad Autónoma de Chapingo, Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio NarroUniversidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio NarroThe Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio Narro is a public university in Mexico dedicated to the Agricultural, Silvicultural, animal, food and environmental sciences. It is located 6 kilometers south of Saltillo, in the Mexican state of Coahuila. There is also a campus in Torreón, Coahuila. It is...
); 35 public state universities (UPES), and a group of private institutions that feature within ECUM's selected classification data. - Result tables for the top 20 institutions in each of the data labels in this study. These include some of the selected universities in addition to the rest of Mexico's higher education institutions, as well as institutes, centers and other research producing organizations.
- A personalized selection from more than 600 institutions. These are classified by institutional type, institutional gatherings, by activity sector alphabetically.
ExECUM allows users to establish comparison types and levels which they consider relevant. Data is presented in raw form with virtually no derived indicators. Users can relate variables and build indicators according to their own analytical perspectives.
Based on this comparative study project, ECUM's creator, the Dirección General de Evaluación Institucional, published reports providing an analysis of the data for 2007 and 2008.
U.S. News & World Report College and University rankings
Referred to as the "granddaddy of the college rankings", America's best–known American college and university rankings have been compiled since 1983 by U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
and are widely regarded as the most influential of all college rankings. This influence is partially attributed to the simple ranking system that U.S. News uses. The ranking order of universities has been shown to have great effect; a one-rank improvement leads to a 0.9% increase in number of applicants.
The US News rankings are based upon data which U.S. News collects from each educational institution either from an annual survey or from the school's website. It also considers opinion surveys of university faculty and administrators outside the school. The college rankings were published in all years thereafter, except 1984.
United States National Research Council Rankings
The National Research Council
United States National Research Council
The National Research Council of the USA is the working arm of the United States National Academies, carrying out most of the studies done in their names.The National Academies include:* National Academy of Sciences...
ranks the doctoral research programmes of US universities, most recently in 1995. Data collection for an updated ranking began in 2006.
Faculty Scholarly Productivity rankings
The Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index
Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index
The Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index , a product of Academic Analytics, is a metric designed to create benchmark standards for the measurement of academic and scholarly quality within and among United States research universities....
by Academic Analytics ranks 354 institutions based on faculty publications, citations, research grants and awards.
The Top American Research Universities
The Center for Measuring University Performance
Center for Measuring University Performance
The Center for Measuring University Performance is a research center at Arizona State University. The Center is best known for an annual report it produces, The Top American Research Universities, that ranks American universities on nine different measures: Total Research, Federal Research,...
has ranked American research universities in the Top American Research Universities since 2000. The methodology is based on data such as research publications, citations, recognitions and funding, as well as undergraduate quality such as SAT scores. The information used can be found in public–accessible materials, reducing possibilities for manipulation. The methodology is generally consistent from year to year and changes are explained in the publication along with references from other studies.
Washington Monthly College rankings
The Washington Monthly
The Washington Monthly
The Washington Monthly is a bimonthly nonprofit magazine of United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C.The magazine's founder is Charles Peters, who started the magazine in 1969 and continues to write the "Tilting at Windmills" column in each issue. Paul Glastris, former...
's "College Rankings", last published in 2010, began as a research report in 2005. Related rankings appeared in the September 2006 issue. It offers American university and college rankings based upon how well it enhances social mobility, fosters scientific and humanistic research and promotes an ethic of service.
TrendTopper MediaBuzz College Guide
TrendTopper MediaBuzz College Guide
TrendTopper MediaBuzz College Guide
TrendTopper MediaBuzz College Guide is an American-college guide based on what it calls "Internet brand equity" based on Internet data, social media, blogs and the top 75,000 print and electronic media outlets. It ranks the what it calls the Top 300 United States colleges and universities...
is an American-college guide based on what it calls "Internet brand equity" based on data collected from the Internet and global media sources. It ranks the Top 300 United States colleges and universities. The guide includes specialty and for profit schools inncluding Art, Business, Design, Music, and Online Education. The TrendTopper MediaBuzz College Rankings are produced twice a year by the Global Language Monitor
Global Language Monitor
The Global Language Monitor is an Austin, Texas-based company that collectively documents, analyzes and tracks trends in language usage worldwide, with a particular emphasis upon the English language...
of Austin
Austin
Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas.Austin may also refer to:-In the United States:*Austin, Arkansas*Austin, Colorado*Austin, Chicago, Illinois*Austin, Indiana*Austin, Minnesota*Austin, Nevada*Austin, Oregon...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
.
Time Magazine described internet brand equity as "a measure of who's talking about you online, based on Internet data, social media, blogs and the top 75,000 print and electronic media outlets.
GLM ranks the schools "according to their online presence -- or internet brand equity ... By focusing on online presence, the Monitor hopes to avoid the biases that characterize other rankings, which commonly rely on the opinions of university officials and college counselors rather than that of the greater public." GLM believes the rankings provide an up-to-date perspective on which schools have the most popular brand. The resulting rankings gauge the relative value of the various institutions and how they change over time.
Forbes College rankings
In 2008, Forbes.com
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
began publishing an annual list, prepared by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity of "America's Best Colleges". The Forbes rankings use the list of alumni published in Who's Who in America, student evaluations from RateMyProfessors.com
RateMyProfessors.com
RateMyProfessors.com is a review site, founded in May 1999 by John Swapceinski, a software engineer from Menlo Park, California, which allows college and university students to assign ratings to professors and campuses of American, Canadian, and United Kingdom institutions. The site was originally...
, self-reported salaries of alumni from PayScale
PayScale
PayScale, Inc. or payscale.com is an online salary, benefits and compensation information company, which launched its service on January 1, 2002. It was founded by Joe Giordano, a former Microsoft and drugstore.com manager, and John Gaffney....
, four-year graduation rates, numbers of students and faculty receiving "nationally competitive awards," and four-year accumulated student debt to calculate the rankings. The list emphasizes tuition costs, which boosts the ratings of the zero-cost United States Service academies. It disregards subjective measures such as public reputation
Reputation
Reputation of a social entity is an opinion about that entity, typically a result of social evaluation on a set of criteria...
, which causes some Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
colleges to score lower than in other lists.
American Council of Trustees and Alumni
In 2009, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni
American Council of Trustees and Alumni
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni is a non-profit organization whose stated mission is to "support liberal arts education, uphold high academic standards, safeguard the free exchange of ideas on campus, and ensure that the next generation receives a philosophically rich, high-quality...
(ACTA) began grading colleges and universities based on the strength of their general education requirements. They assign a letter grade ranging from "A" to "F" to more than 700 four-year colleges and universities based on how many of seven subjects are required of students: composition, mathematics, intermediate-level foreign language, science, economics, literature and American government or history. This rating has been endorsed by Mel Elfin, founding editor of U.S. News & World Report’s rankings. New York Times higher education blogger Stanley Fish
Stanley Fish
Stanley Eugene Fish is an American literary theorist and legal scholar. He was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island...
, while agreeing that universities ought to have a strong core curriculum, disagreed with some of the subjects ACTA includes in the core. As of 2010, only 16 universities had earned an "A".
Revealed preference rankings
Avery et al. pioneered the use of choice modelling
Choice Modelling
Choice modelling attempts to model the decision process of an individual or segment in a particular context. Choice modelling may also be used to estimate non-market environmental benefits and costs....
to rank colleges. Their methodology used a statistical analysis of the decisions of 3,240 students who applied to college in 1999. MyChances.net adopted a similar approach starting in 2009, stating that its method is based on this approach. The study analysed students admitted to multiple colleges. The college they attended became the winner, and the others became the losers. An Elo rating system
Elo rating system
The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....
was used to assign points based on each win or loss, and the colleges were ranked based on their Elo points. A useful consequence of the use of Elo points is that they can be used to estimate the frequency with which students, upon being admitted to two schools, will choose one over the other.
Other rankings of US universities
Other organizations that rank US institutions include the Fiske Guide to Colleges and College Prowler
College Prowler
College Prowler is an American publishing company for guidebooks on top colleges and universities in the United States.The company creates guidebooks written by current college students, for prospective college students, giving an insider's view...
. Many specialized rankings are available in guidebooks, considering individual student interests, fields of study, geographical location, financial aid and affordability.
Among the rankings dealing with individual fields of study is the Philosophical Gourmet Report
Philosophical Gourmet Report
The Philosophical Gourmet Report edited by Philosophy and Law professor Brian Leiter — in response to the Gourman Report — is a ranking of philosophy departments in the English-speaking world, based on a survey of philosophers who are nominated as evaluators by the Report's Advisory...
or "Leiter Report", a ranking of philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
departments. This report has attracted criticism from different viewpoints. Notably, practitioners of continental philosophy
Continental philosophy
Continental philosophy, in contemporary usage, refers to a set of traditions of 19th and 20th century philosophy from mainland Europe. This sense of the term originated among English-speaking philosophers in the second half of the 20th century, who used it to refer to a range of thinkers and...
, who perceive the Leiter report as unfair to their field, have compiled alternative rankings.
The Gourman Report
Gourman Report
The Gourman Report is Dr. Jack Gourman's ranking of undergraduate, professional, and graduate programs programs in American and International Universities...
, last published in 1996, ranked the quality of undergraduate majors and graduate programs.
Gallup polls ask American adults, "All in all, what would you say is the best college or university in the United States?"
The Princeton Review, annually publishes a book of Best Colleges. In 2011, this was titled The Best 373 Colleges. Phi Beta Kappa has also sought to establish chapters at the best schools, lately numbering 280.
Argentina
In Argentina the National Commission for University Evaluation and Accreditation ranks higher education programs by evaluation and accreditation.Chile
In Chile the "Comisión Nacional de Acreditación" (National Commission of Accreditation of the Universities) manages evaluation and accreditation. It also ranks universities according to accreditation levels. Other commercial rankings are made by research magazines, including Qué Pasa and América Economía. Qué Pasa's ranking evaluates perception and quality following surveys of approximately 1,000 employers across the country. América Economías ranking considers quality of students, quality of teachers, rating of professors by student, research productivity, internationalization, integration with the community, student life quality and inclusion of students from lower social strata.See also
- Law School Rankings
- MBA program rankings
External links
- Institute for Higher Education Policy Ranking Systems Clearinghouse
- University of Illinois Library – College and University Rankings
- scotland best colleges
- The Ranking Forum of Swiss Universities
Further reading
- College Rankings Reformed: The Case for a New Order in Higher Education
- Jambor, Paul Z. 'The Changing Dynamics of PhDs and the Future of Higher Educational Development in Asia and the Rest of the World' Department of Education – The United States of America: Educational Resources Information Center, September 26, 2009 (Accessed in October, 2009)