Every year, universities are ranked on a range of criteria and a top ten list is created. These lists are important to students who want the best possible university experience from a highly respected institution.
Every year, universities are ranked on a range of criteria and a top ten list is created. These lists are important to students who want the best possible university experience from a highly respected institution.
However, there are a whole host of different ranking systems, using diverse criteria including how students rate their lecturers and how many alumni can claim a Nobel Prize.
The 2010-11 Times Higher Education World University Rankings
Although Times Higher Education (THE) admits many of the things that higher education institutions do cannot be measured, the magazine is confident that its 13 separate performance indicators represent an accurate picture of global higher education.
The main categories measured by THE are:
Teaching - the learning environment (worth 30% of the overall ranking score)
Research - volume, income and reputation (worth 30%)
Citations - research influence (worth 32.5%)
Industry income - innovation (worth 2.5%)
International mix - staff and students (worth 5%).
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QS World University Rankings 2010
Education event business QS ranks universities with Academic Reputation and Employer Reputation at its heart. This is based on surveys of academics and employers, which ask respondents to list the best institutions in a number of fields, on a range of criteria.
Academic Ranking of World Universities
ARWU uses six objective indicators to rank world universities, including: the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals; number of highly cited researchers selected by Thomson Scientific; number of articles published in journals of Nature and Science; number of articles indexed in Science Citation Index - Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index; and per capita performance with respect to the size of an institution. The numbers-based analysis keeps this ranking objective and is therefore highly respected by academics globally.
The top universities of University of Melbourne, Australian National University and University of Sydney continue to show up at the top of every table, although the order moves around. It's good to keep an eye on university rankings but you should also compare higher education institutions by departments and by individual courses.