QS World University Rankings
Encyclopedia
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.
The QS rankings were originally published in publication with Times Higher Education from 2004 to 2009 as the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings. In 2010, Times Higher Education and QS ended their collaboration. QS assumed sole publication of the existing methodology, while Times Higher Education created a new ranking methodology, published as Times Higher Education World University Rankings
.
’s review of university-industry collaboration in Britain http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/lambert_review_business_university_collab.htm for HM Treasury
, the finance ministry of the United Kingdom. Amongst its recommendations were world university rankings, which Lambert said would help the UK to gauge the global standing of its universities.
The idea for the rankings was credited in Ben Wildavsky's book, The Great Brain Race: How Global Universities are Reshaping the World, to then-editor of Times Higher Education, John O'Leary
. Times Higher Education chose to partner with educational and careers advice company Quacquarelli Symonds
(QS) to supply the data, appointing Martin Ince http://www.martinince.eu, formerly deputy editor and later a contractor to THE, to manage the project.
Between 2004 and 2009, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) produced the rankings in partnership with Times Higher Education (THE). In 2009, THE announced they would produce their own rankings, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings
, in partnership with Thomson Reuters
. After criticism from universities, THE cited a weakness in the methodology of the original rankings, as well as a perceived favoritism in the existing methodology for science over the humanities, as one of the key reasons for the decision to split with QS.
QS retained the intellectual property in the Rankings and the methodology used to compile them and continues to produce the rankings, now called the QS World University Rankings. THE created a new methodology, first published independently as the Times Higher Education World University Rankings
in September 2010 and altered again for publication by THE on October 6, 2011.
QS publishes the results of the original methodology in key media around the world, including US News & World Report in the United States and Chosun Ilbo in Korea. The first rankings produced by QS independently of THE, and using QS's consistent and original methodology, were released on September 8, 2010, with the second appearing on September 6, 2011.
The 2011 rankings made use of responses from 33,744 people from over 140 nations in its Academic Peer Review, including votes from the previous two years rolled forward provided there was no more recent information available from the same individual. Participants can nominate up to 30 universities but are not able to vote for their own. They tend to nominate a median of about 20, which means that this survey includes over 500,000 data points. More here http://iu.qs.com/projects-and-services/world-university-rankings/2011-academic-survey-responses/.
In 2004, when the rankings first appeared, academic peer review accounted for half of a university's possible score. In 2005, its share was cut to 40 per cent because of the introduction of the Recruiter Review.
More here http://iu.qs.com/projects-and-services/rankings-indicators/methodology-employer-reputation/.
QS has explained that it uses this approach, rather than the citations per paper preferred for other systems, because it reduces the effect of biomedical science on the overall picture – bio-medicine has a ferocious “publish or perish
” culture. Instead QS attempts to measure the density of research-active staff at each institution. But issues still remain about the use of citations in ranking systems, especially the fact that the arts and humanities generate comparatively few citations. More here http://iu.qs.com/projects-and-services/rankings-indicators/methodology-citations-per-faculty/.
QS has conceded the presence of some data collection errors regarding citations per faculty in previous years' rankings.
One interesting issue is the difference between the Scopus and Thomson Reuters databases. For major world universities, the two systems capture more or less the same publications and citations. For less mainstream institutions, Scopus has more non-English language and smaller-circulation journals in its database. But as the papers there are less heavily cited, this can also mean fewer citations per paper for the universities that publish in them.
More on this at http://iu.qs.com/projects-and-services/rankings-indicators/methodology-citations-per-faculty/
This is of interest partly because it shows whether a university is putting effort into being global, but also because it tells us whether it is taken seriously enough by students and academics around the world for them to want to be there.
More at http://iu.qs.com/projects-and-services/rankings-indicators/methodology-international/.
. In 2006, the last year before the Z score system was introduced, Caltech was top of the citations per faculty score, receiving 100 on this indicator, because of its highly research and science-oriented approach. The next two institutions on this measure, Harvard and Stanford, each scored 55. In other words, 45 per cent of the possible difference between the world's universities was between the top university and the next one (in fact two) on the list, leaving every other university on Earth to fight over the remaining 55 per cent.
Likewise in 2005, Harvard was top university and MIT was second with 86.9, so that 13 per cent of the total difference between all the world's universities was between first and second place. In 2011, the University of Cambridge was top and the second institution, Harvard, got 99.34. So the Z score system allows the full range of available difference to be used in a more informative way.
QS publishes domestic and international fees for undergraduate and postgraduate study.
QS uses citations per paper rather than per person partly because it does not hold details of the academic staff in each subject area, and partly because the number of citations per paper should be a consistent indicator of impact within a specific field with a defined publishing culture.
QS has formed an international advisory board for the Rankings, convened by Martin Incehttp://www.martinince.eu, and with members in Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America.
first in the world for the second year in succession. Harvard University
remained in second place, ahead of its neighbour MIT in third place. Yale
remained in fourth place, ahead of the University of Oxford
in fifth.
The rankings covered 712 institutions out of 2,919 on which QS held data. There were universities from 32 nations in the top 200 and from 50 in the top 500. The average age of the top 200 universities was 187.3 years. The newest top 10 university, Chicago, was founded in 1890.
The 2011 rankings list the top 400 universities in rank order, followed by institutions 401-600 in bands of 50 anda further 112 grouped as "601+."
, Professor Judith Kinnear, says that the Times Higher Education-QS ranking is a "wonderful external acknowledgement of several University attributes, including the quality of its research, research training, teaching and employability." She says the rankings are a true measure of a university's ability to fly high internationally: "The Times Higher Education ranking provides a rather more and more sophisticated, robust and well rounded measure of international and national ranking than either New Zealand's Performance Based Research Fund
(PBRF) measure or the Shanghai rankings
."
Martin Ince, chair of the Advisory Board for the Rankings, points out that their volatility has been reduced since 2007 by the introduction of the Z-score calculation method and that over time, the quality of QS's data gathering has improved to reduce anomalies. In addition, the academic review is now so big that even modestly ranked universities receive a statistically valid number of votes.
Quacquarelli Symonds
has been faulted for some data collection errors. Between 2006 and 2007 Washington University in St. Louis
fell from 48th to 161st because QS confused it with the University of Washington
in Seattle. QS committed a similar error when collecting data for Fortune Magazine confusing the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler business school with one from North Carolina Central University.
Some errors have also been reported in the faculty-student ratio used in the ranking. At the 16th Annual New Zealand International Education Conference held at Christchurch, New Zealand in August 2007, Simon Marginson presented a paper that outlines the fundamental flaws underlying the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings. A similar article (also published by the same author) appeared in The Australian newspaper in December 2006. Some of the points mentioned include:
THES-QS had introduced several changes in methodology in 2007 which were aimed at addressing some of the above criticisms, the ranking has continued to attract criticisms. In an article in the peer-reviewed BMC Medicine authored by several scientists from the US and Greece, it was pointed out:
Alex Usher, vice president of Higher Education Strategy Associates in Canada, commented:
Academics have also been critical of the use of the citation database, arguing that it undervalues institutions who excel in the social sciences. Ian Diamond, former chief executive of the Economic and Social Research Council
and now vice-chancellor of the University of Aberdeen
wrote to Times Higher Education in 2007, saying:
Criticism of the Times Higher Education-QS league tables also came from Andrew Oswald, professor of economics at University of Warwick:
The most recent criticism of the old system came from Fred L. Bookstein, Horst Seidler, Martin Fieder and Georg Winckler in the journal Scientomentrics for the unreliability of QS's methods:
(QS) launched the QS Asian University Rankings in partnership with The Chosun Ilbo
newspaper in Korea. They rank the top 200 Asian universities and has now appeared three times. The University of Hong Kong was top in 2010 and The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology was top in 2011. These rankings use some of the same criteria as the World University Rankings as well as some novel measures such as incoming and outgoing exchange students
Quacquarelli 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...
using a method that has published annually since 2004.
The QS rankings were originally published in publication with Times Higher Education from 2004 to 2009 as the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings. In 2010, Times Higher Education and QS ended their collaboration. QS assumed sole publication of the existing methodology, while Times Higher Education created a new ranking methodology, published as 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...
.
History
The need for an international ranking of universities was highlighted in December 2003 in Richard LambertRichard Lambert
Sir Richard Peter Lambert is the former Director-General of the CBI, and the present Chancellor of the University of Warwick.-Education:...
’s review of university-industry collaboration in Britain http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/lambert_review_business_university_collab.htm for HM Treasury
HM Treasury
HM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy...
, the finance ministry of the United Kingdom. Amongst its recommendations were world university rankings, which Lambert said would help the UK to gauge the global standing of its universities.
The idea for the rankings was credited in Ben Wildavsky's book, The Great Brain Race: How Global Universities are Reshaping the World, to then-editor of Times Higher Education, John O'Leary
John O'Leary
John O'Leary may refer to:* John O'Leary , Irish nationalist who was imprisoned in England during the nineteenth century*John O'Leary , former Irish Fianna Fáil party politician and TD for Kerry South...
. Times Higher Education chose to partner with educational and careers advice company Quacquarelli Symonds
Quacquarelli 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) to supply the data, appointing Martin Ince http://www.martinince.eu, formerly deputy editor and later a contractor to THE, to manage the project.
Between 2004 and 2009, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) produced the rankings in partnership with Times Higher Education (THE). In 2009, THE announced they would produce their own rankings, 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...
, in partnership with 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...
. After criticism from universities, THE cited a weakness in the methodology of the original rankings, as well as a perceived favoritism in the existing methodology for science over the humanities, as one of the key reasons for the decision to split with QS.
QS retained the intellectual property in the Rankings and the methodology used to compile them and continues to produce the rankings, now called the QS World University Rankings. THE created a new methodology, first published independently as 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...
in September 2010 and altered again for publication by THE on October 6, 2011.
QS publishes the results of the original methodology in key media around the world, including US News & World Report in the United States and Chosun Ilbo in Korea. The first rankings produced by QS independently of THE, and using QS's consistent and original methodology, were released on September 8, 2010, with the second appearing on September 6, 2011.
Method
QS tried to design its rankings to look at a broad range of university activity. Six indicators are used.Academic peer review (40%)
The most controversial part of the QS World University Rankings is their use of an opinion survey referred to as the Academic Peer Review. Using a combination of purchased mailing lists and applications and suggestions, this survey asks active academics across the world about the top universities in fields they know about. QS has published the job titles and geographical distribution of the participants.The 2011 rankings made use of responses from 33,744 people from over 140 nations in its Academic Peer Review, including votes from the previous two years rolled forward provided there was no more recent information available from the same individual. Participants can nominate up to 30 universities but are not able to vote for their own. They tend to nominate a median of about 20, which means that this survey includes over 500,000 data points. More here http://iu.qs.com/projects-and-services/world-university-rankings/2011-academic-survey-responses/.
In 2004, when the rankings first appeared, academic peer review accounted for half of a university's possible score. In 2005, its share was cut to 40 per cent because of the introduction of the Recruiter Review.
Recruiter review (10%)
This part of the ranking is obtained by a similar method to the Academic Peer Review, except that it samples recruiters who hire graduates on a global or significant national scale. The numbers are smaller – 16,875 responses from over 130 countries in the 2011 Rankings – and are used to produce 10 per cent of any university’s possible score. This survey was introduced in 2005 in the belief that employers track graduate quality, making this a barometer of teaching quality, a famously problematic thing to measure. University standing here is of especial interest to potential students.More here http://iu.qs.com/projects-and-services/rankings-indicators/methodology-employer-reputation/.
Faculty student ratio (20%)
This indicator accounts for 20 per cent of a university’s possible score in the rankings. It is a classic measure used in various ranking systems as a surrogate for teaching commitment, but QS has admitted that it is less than satisfactory. More on the QS website here http://iu.qs.com/projects-and-services/rankings-indicators/methodology-faculty-student/.Citations per faculty (20%)
Citations of published research are among the most widely used inputs to national and global university rankings. The QS World University Rankings used citations data from Thomson (now Thomson Reuters) from 2004 to 2007, and since then uses data from Scopus, part of Elsevier. The total number of citations for a five-year period is divided by the number of academic staff in a university to yield the score for this measure, which accounts for 20 per cent of a university’s possible score in the Rankings.QS has explained that it uses this approach, rather than the citations per paper preferred for other systems, because it reduces the effect of biomedical science on the overall picture – bio-medicine has a ferocious “publish or perish
Publish or perish
"Publish or perish" is a phrase coined to describe the pressure in academia to publish work constantly to further or sustain one's career.Frequent publication is one of the few methods at a scholar's disposal to demonstrate their academic capabilities, and the attention that successful publications...
” culture. Instead QS attempts to measure the density of research-active staff at each institution. But issues still remain about the use of citations in ranking systems, especially the fact that the arts and humanities generate comparatively few citations. More here http://iu.qs.com/projects-and-services/rankings-indicators/methodology-citations-per-faculty/.
QS has conceded the presence of some data collection errors regarding citations per faculty in previous years' rankings.
One interesting issue is the difference between the Scopus and Thomson Reuters databases. For major world universities, the two systems capture more or less the same publications and citations. For less mainstream institutions, Scopus has more non-English language and smaller-circulation journals in its database. But as the papers there are less heavily cited, this can also mean fewer citations per paper for the universities that publish in them.
More on this at http://iu.qs.com/projects-and-services/rankings-indicators/methodology-citations-per-faculty/
International orientation (10%)
The final ten per cent of a university’s possible score is derived from measures intended to capture their internationalism: five percent from their percentage of international students, and another five percent from their percentage of international staff.This is of interest partly because it shows whether a university is putting effort into being global, but also because it tells us whether it is taken seriously enough by students and academics around the world for them to want to be there.
More at http://iu.qs.com/projects-and-services/rankings-indicators/methodology-international/.
Data sources
The information used to compile the World University Ranking comes partly from the online surveys carried out by QS, partly from Scopus, and partly from an annual information-gathering exercise carried out by QS itself. QS collects data from universities directly and from their web sites and publications, and from national bodies such as education ministries and the National Center for Education Statistics in the US and the Higher Education Statistics Agency in the UK.Aggregation
The data is aggregated into columns according to its Z score, an indicator of how far removed any institution is from the average. Between 2004 and 2007 a different system was used whereby the top university for any measure was scaled as 100 and the others received a score reflecting their comparative performance. According to QS, this method was dropped because it gives too much weight to some exceptional outliers, such as the very high faculty/student ratio of the 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...
. In 2006, the last year before the Z score system was introduced, Caltech was top of the citations per faculty score, receiving 100 on this indicator, because of its highly research and science-oriented approach. The next two institutions on this measure, Harvard and Stanford, each scored 55. In other words, 45 per cent of the possible difference between the world's universities was between the top university and the next one (in fact two) on the list, leaving every other university on Earth to fight over the remaining 55 per cent.
Likewise in 2005, Harvard was top university and MIT was second with 86.9, so that 13 per cent of the total difference between all the world's universities was between first and second place. In 2011, the University of Cambridge was top and the second institution, Harvard, got 99.34. So the Z score system allows the full range of available difference to be used in a more informative way.
Classifications
In 2009, a column of classifications was introduced to provide additional context to the rankings tables. Universities are classified by size, defined by the size of the student body; comprehensive or specialist status, defined by the range of faculty areas in which programs are offered; and research activity, defined by the number of papers published in a five-year period.Fees
In 2011, QS began publishing average fees data for the universities it ranks. These are not used as an indicator in the rankings, but are clearly of immense interest and reveal much about a university's self-image and market position.QS publishes domestic and international fees for undergraduate and postgraduate study.
Results
The institutions that dominate the QS rankings are either large, general research institutions or large science and technology specialists such as MIT or Imperial College. To be included in the QS World University Rankings, institutions must teach in at least two of the five main areas of academic life (the social sciences, the arts and humanities, biomedicine, engineering and the physical sciences), and must teach undergraduates.Faculty-level analysis
QS publishes a simple analysis of the top 100 institutions in each of the five faculty-level areas mentioned above: natural sciences, technology, biology and medicine, social sciences and the arts and humanities. These five tables list universities in order of their Academic Peer Review score. They also give the citations per paper for each institution, but the two data sets are not aggregated.QS uses citations per paper rather than per person partly because it does not hold details of the academic staff in each subject area, and partly because the number of citations per paper should be a consistent indicator of impact within a specific field with a defined publishing culture.
Effects
Web-raters such as Alexa [www.alexa.com] verify that the QS Rankings attract millions of page views. As the main audience are 18-24 year olds (according to Alexa in October 2011), it is rational to suppose that students and potential students are their main user. Some universities, especially in Asia, have a target to be well-placed in the rankings. In October 2011, Queen’s University Belfast (UK) was advertising with the slogan “Destination Global Top 100.” http://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/QUBJobVacancies/AcademicOpportunities/Chairs/DestinationTop100/QS has formed an international advisory board for the Rankings, convened by Martin Incehttp://www.martinince.eu, and with members in Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America.
2011 rankings
The 2011 QS World University Rankings ranked the University of CambridgeUniversity 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...
first in the world for the second year in succession. 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...
remained in second place, ahead of its neighbour MIT in third place. Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
remained in fourth place, ahead of the 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...
in fifth.
The rankings covered 712 institutions out of 2,919 on which QS held data. There were universities from 32 nations in the top 200 and from 50 in the top 500. The average age of the top 200 universities was 187.3 years. The newest top 10 university, Chicago, was founded in 1890.
The 2011 rankings list the top 400 universities in rank order, followed by institutions 401-600 in bands of 50 anda further 112 grouped as "601+."
Top 20 in the QS World University Rankings
- 2004THE–QS World University Rankings, 2004This is the 2004 THE–QS World University Rankings list of the top 200 universities in the world.-Top 200:-Asia & Australia:-Europe:-North America:...
| 2005THE–QS World University Rankings, 2005This is the 2005 THE–QS World University Rankings list of the top 200 universities in the world.-Top 200:-Europe:...
| 2006THE–QS World University Rankings, 2006This is the 2006 THE–QS World University Rankings list of the top 200 universities in the world.-Top 200:...
| 2007THE–QS World University Rankings, 2007This is the 2007 THE–QS World University Rankings list of the top 200 universities in the world.-Top 200:...
| 2008THE–QS World University Rankings, 2008This is the 2008 THE–QS World University Rankings list of the top 200 universities in the world.-Top 200:...
| 2009THE–QS World University Rankings, 2009This is the top 200 of the 2009 Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings / Times Higher Education World University Rankings / QS World University Rankings of the top 300 universities in the world.-Top 200:...
2011 Rank 2010 Rank 2009 Rank 2008 Rank 2007 Rank 2006 Rank 2005 Rank 2004 Rank Mean Rank Mean Rank Position University Country 1 1 2 3 2= 2 3 6 2.5 2 University of Cambridge University of CambridgeThe 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...UK United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.3 1 Harvard University Harvard UniversityHarvard 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...US United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...3 5 9 9 10 4= 2 3 5.6 5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...US United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...4 3 3 2 2= 4= 7 8 4.1 3 Yale University Yale UniversityYale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...US United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...5 6 5= 4 2= 3 4 5 4.3 4 University of Oxford University of OxfordThe 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...UK United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...6 7 5= 6 5 9 13 14 8.1 7 Imperial College London Imperial College LondonImperial College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, specialising in science, engineering, business and medicine...UK United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...7 4 4 7 9 25 28 34 14.8 12 University College London University College LondonUniversity College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...UK United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...8 8 7 8 7= 11 17 13 9.9 9 University of Chicago University of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...US United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...9 12 12 11 14 26 32 28 18.0 14 University of Pennsylvania University of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...US United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...10 11 11 10 11 12 20 19 13.0 11 Columbia University Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...US United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...11 13 16 17 19 6 5 7 11.8 10 Stanford University Stanford UniversityThe 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...US United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...12 9 10 5 7= 7 8 4 7.8 6 California Institute of Technology California Institute of TechnologyThe 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...US United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...13 10 8 12 6 10 9 9 9.6 8 Princeton University Princeton UniversityPrinceton 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....US United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...14 15 19 18 38= 29= 36 31 25.0 18 University of Michigan University of MichiganThe University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...US United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...15 16 15 15 20= 15 14 23 16.6 13 Cornell University Cornell UniversityCornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...US United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...16 17 13 13= 15 23 27 25 18.6 15= Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins UniversityThe Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...US United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...17 19 18 20 12 21 24 21 19.0 16 McGill University McGill UniversityMohammed 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...Canada CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...18 18 20= 24 42 24 21 10 22.1 17 ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) ETH ZurichThe Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....Switzerland SwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....19 14 14 13= 13 13 11 52 18.6 15= Duke University Duke UniversityDuke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...US United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...20 22 20= 23 23 33= 33= 48 27.8 19 University of Edinburgh University of EdinburghThe 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...UK United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Commentary
Several universities in the UK and the Asia-Pacific region have commented on the rankings positively. Vice-Chancellor of New Zealand's Massey UniversityMassey University
Massey University is one of New Zealand's largest universities with approximately 36,000 students, 20,000 of whom are extramural students.The University has campuses in Palmerston North , Wellington and Auckland . Massey offers most of its degrees extramurally within New Zealand and internationally...
, Professor Judith Kinnear, says that the Times Higher Education-QS ranking is a "wonderful external acknowledgement of several University attributes, including the quality of its research, research training, teaching and employability." She says the rankings are a true measure of a university's ability to fly high internationally: "The Times Higher Education ranking provides a rather more and more sophisticated, robust and well rounded measure of international and national ranking than either New Zealand's Performance Based Research Fund
Performance Based Research Fund
The Performance Based Research Fund is a New Zealand tertiary education funding process, assessing the research performance of tertiary education organisations and then funding them on the basis of their performance....
(PBRF) measure or the Shanghai rankings
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...
."
Martin Ince, chair of the Advisory Board for the Rankings, points out that their volatility has been reduced since 2007 by the introduction of the Z-score calculation method and that over time, the quality of QS's data gathering has improved to reduce anomalies. In addition, the academic review is now so big that even modestly ranked universities receive a statistically valid number of votes.
Criticism
The THE-QS World University Rankings have been criticised by many for placing too much emphasis on peer review, which receives 40 per cent of the overall score. Some people have expressed concern about the manner in which the peer review has been carried out. In a report, Peter Wills from the University of Auckland, New Zealand wrote of the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings:Quacquarelli Symonds
Quacquarelli 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...
has been faulted for some data collection errors. Between 2006 and 2007 Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...
fell from 48th to 161st because QS confused it with the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
in Seattle. QS committed a similar error when collecting data for Fortune Magazine confusing the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler business school with one from North Carolina Central University.
Some errors have also been reported in the faculty-student ratio used in the ranking. At the 16th Annual New Zealand International Education Conference held at Christchurch, New Zealand in August 2007, Simon Marginson presented a paper that outlines the fundamental flaws underlying the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings. A similar article (also published by the same author) appeared in The Australian newspaper in December 2006. Some of the points mentioned include:
THES-QS had introduced several changes in methodology in 2007 which were aimed at addressing some of the above criticisms, the ranking has continued to attract criticisms. In an article in the peer-reviewed BMC Medicine authored by several scientists from the US and Greece, it was pointed out:
Alex Usher, vice president of Higher Education Strategy Associates in Canada, commented:
Academics have also been critical of the use of the citation database, arguing that it undervalues institutions who excel in the social sciences. Ian Diamond, former chief executive of the Economic and Social Research Council
Economic and Social Research Council
The Economic and Social Research Council is one of the seven Research Councils in the United Kingdom. It receives most of its funding from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and provides funding and support for research and training work in social and economic issues, such as...
and now vice-chancellor of the University of Aberdeen
University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen, an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a British university. It is the third oldest university in Scotland, and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom and wider English-speaking world...
wrote to Times Higher Education in 2007, saying:
Criticism of the Times Higher Education-QS league tables also came from Andrew Oswald, professor of economics at University of Warwick:
The most recent criticism of the old system came from Fred L. Bookstein, Horst Seidler, Martin Fieder and Georg Winckler in the journal Scientomentrics for the unreliability of QS's methods:
QS Asian University Rankings
In 2009, 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) launched the QS Asian University Rankings in partnership with The Chosun Ilbo
The Chosun Ilbo
The Chosun Ilbo is one of the major newspapers in South Korea. With a daily circulation of over 2,200,000, the Chosun Ilbo has undertaken annual inspections since Audit Bureau of Circulations was established in 1993...
newspaper in Korea. They rank the top 200 Asian universities and has now appeared three times. The University of Hong Kong was top in 2010 and The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology was top in 2011. These rankings use some of the same criteria as the World University Rankings as well as some novel measures such as incoming and outgoing exchange students
QS Latin American University Rankings
The QS Latin American University Rankings http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/latin-american-university-rankings/2011 were launched in October 2011. They use academic opinion (30 per cent), employer opinion (20 per cent), publications per faculty member, citations per paper, academic staff with a PhD, faculty/student ratio and web visibility (10 per cent each) as measures. These criteria were developed in consultation with experts in Latin America, and the web visibility data comes from Webometrics http://www.webometrics.info. This ranking showed that the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil is the regions's top institution.QS World University Rankings by Subject
In 2011, QS began ranking universities around the world by subject. The rankings are based on 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.External links
- Quacquarelli Symonds official website
- Full rankings 2011/12
- QS Intelligence Unit Blog — blog on rankings and higher education from the team that compiles the QS World University Rankings