University Rankings | Explained
Being able to choose the right university is an important life-changing decision. International students, for example, may want to enroll in a university that has high employability rates in order to secure a work visa. Upcoming graduate students may want to enroll in an institution that prioritizes research and citations. For situations like these, a university ranking may be able to help.
However, when googling for the top universities, multiple lists show up with varying university rankings.
In this quick article we’ll be discussing the 3 most popular global university ranking systems, their metrics for scoring, and additional lesser-known systems you might be interested in.
The 3 university ranking systems stated above are:
- Times Higher Education World University Ranking (THE)
- Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings (QS)
- Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)
THE (Times Higher Education)
Published by: British Magazine, Times Higher Education
Rank priority: Research = Teaching = Research Citations
Brief description:
Times Higher Education is a ranking system that equally divides Research, Teaching, and Citations for its scoring, with the remaining percentages for its international outlook. With the given metrics, we can safely state that THE is focused on academic performance.
Metrics Breakdown:
- Teaching – The Learning Environment (30%)
- Reputation Survey (15%)
- Staff-to-Student Ratio (4.5%)
- Doctorate-to-Bachelor’s Ratio (2.25%)
- Doctorates-Awarded-to-Academic-Staff ratio (6%)
- Institutional Income (2.25%)
- Research – Volume, Income, & Reputation (30%)
- Reputation Survey (18%)
- Research Income (6%)
- Research Productivity (6%)
- Citations – Research Influence (30%)
- International Outlook – Staff, Students, & Research (7.5%)
- Proportion of International Students (2.5%)
- Proportion to International Staff (2.5%)
- International Collaboration (2.5%)
- Industry Income – Knowledge Transfer (2.5%)
Current THE University ranking
QS (Quacquarelli Symonds)
Published by: British Company, Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd.
Rank priority: Academic Reputation > Student-to-Faculty Ratio = Citations per Faculty Member
Brief description:
Quacquarelli Symonds seems to have distributed a large percentage of its scoring to Academic Reputation, combining teaching and research quality into one criterion. Combined with Citations, QS scores Teaching, Research, and Citations at 60% compared to 90% on THE. QS’ remaining percentages are focused more on educational efficiency, with ratios and proportions weighing over 30% of the total score.
Metrics Breakdown:
- Academic Reputation (40%)
- Employer Reputation (10%)
- Student-to-Faculty Ratio (20%)
- Research Citations per Faculty Member (20%)
- Proportion of International Faculty (5%)
- Proportion of International students (5%)
ARWU (Academic Ranking of World Universities)
Originally published by: University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Currently being published by: Higher Education Research Company, Shanghai Ranking Consultancy
Rank priority: Awards = Highly Cited Researchers = Papers in Nature & Science = Papers Indexed
Brief description:
ARWU’s scoring system weighs heavily on faculty performance and research publications. With the remaining 20% distributed evenly across alumni performance and performance proportions.
Metrics Breakdown:
- Quality of Education (10%)
- Alumni that won Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (10%)
- Quality of Faculty (40%)
- Staff that won Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (20%)
- Highly Cited Researchers (20%)
- Research Output (40%)
- Papers published in Nature and Science (20%)
- Papers indexed in “Science Citation Index - Expanded” and Social Science Citation Index (20%)
- Per Capita Performance (10%)
Other Ranking Systems
Ranking Web of Universities
Published by: Research Group, Cybermetrics Lab under Public Research Body, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Rank priority: Online Visibility > Papers published
Brief description:
Ranking Web of Universities ranks universities based on their online authority or stature. What does this mean? Without the digital marketing jargon, it is the reputation of a website (in this case, a university) online. Reputation can be affected by various factors such as the number of external hyperlinks linking to a university’s website, the volume and quality of articles published, page loading speed, and much more. Improve your school’s ranking on this list by partnering with a reliable education-focused digital agency.
Metrics Breakdown:
- Visibility – number of backlinks (50%)
- Transparency – number of citations (10%)
- Scholar – number of papers (40%)
Current Ranking Web of Universities Ranking
Nature Index
Published by: Division, Nature Portfolio under International Scientific Publishing Company, Springer Nature
Rank priority: Counts and Shares
Brief description:
The Nature Index ranks universities solely for their contributions to the world of research, more specifically, to research articles published in natural science journals.
Metrics:
- Article count (called Count)
- Fractional count (called Share)
(RUR) Round University Rankings
Published by: Russian Company, Round University Ranking LLC.
Rank priority: Teaching = Research
Brief description:
RUR, just like THE, focuses on Teaching and Research metrics. However, it significantly reduces the value of Research Citations, and instead makes it a subsection of Research.
Metrics:
- Teaching (40%)
- Academic staff per student (8%)
- Academic staff per bachelor degrees awarded (8%)
- Doctoral degrees awarded per academic staff (8%)
- Doctoral degrees awarded per bachelor degrees awarded (8%)
- World teaching reputation (8%)
- Research (40%)
- Citations per academic and research staff (8%)
- Doctoral degrees per admitted Ph.D. (8%)
- Normalized citation impact (8%)
- Papers per academic and research staff (8%)
- World research reputation (8%)
- International Diversity (10%)
- Share of international academic staff (2%)
- Share of international students (2%)
- Share of international co-authored papers (2%)
- Reputation outside region (2%)
- International level (2%)
- Financial Sustainability (10%)
- Institutional income per academic staff (2%)
- Institutional income per student (2%)
- Papers per research income (2%)
- Research income per academic and research staff (2%)
- Research income per institutional income (2%)