Friday, January 31, 2014

Department of Remarkable Coincidences

On the day that QS published their top 50 under-50 universities, Times Higher Education has announced that it will be holding a Young Universities Summit in Miami in April at which the top 100 universities under 50 will be revealed.

Also, the summit will see "a consultative discussion on proposed new rankings metrics designed to better capture innovation in innovation and knowledge transfer in world rankings in the future."

Innovation?  What could that mean? Maybe counting patents.

Knowledge transfer? Could this mean doing something about the citations indicator? Has someone at THE seen who contributed to multi-author massively cited publications in 2012?

on proposed new rankings metrics designed to better capture innovation and knowledge transfer in world rankings in the future.on proposed new rankings metrics designed to better capture innovation and knowledge transfer in world rankings in the future.

a consultative discussion on proposed new rankings metrics designed to better capture innovation and knowledge transfer in world rankings in the future.a consultative discussion on proposed new rankings metrics designed to better capture innovation and knowledge transfer in world rankings in the future.

ll also host a consultative discussion on proposed new rankings metrics designed to better capture innovation and knowledge transfer in world rankings in the fu

QS Young Universities Rankings

QS have produced a ranking of universities founded in the last fifty years. It is based on data collected for last year's World University Rankings.

The top five are:

1.  Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
2.  Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
3.  Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
4.  City University of Hong Kong
5.  Pohang University of Science and Technology, Korea

There are no universities from Russia or Mainland China on the list although there is one from Taiwan and another from Kazakhstan.

There are nine Australian universities in the top fifty.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

The 25 Most International Universities

Times Higher Education has produced a succession of spin-offs from their World University Rankings: rankings of Asian universities, young universities and emerging economies universities, reputation rankings, a gender index.

Now there is a list of the world's most international universities, based on the international outlook indicator in the world rankings. This comprises data on international students, international faculty and international research collaboration.

The top five are:

1.   Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
2=  Swiss Federal Institute of technology Zurich
2=  University of Geneva
4.   National University of Singapore
5.   Royal Holloway, University of London
.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

A bright idea from India

Has someone in India been reading this blog?


In a previous post I suggested that universities might improve their scores in the world rankings by merging. That would help in the QS and THE reputation surveys and the publications indicator in the Shanghai rankings.


If he is being reported correctly, Indian education minister Ashok Thakur proposes to go a step further and suggests that all the Indian Institutes of Technology should be assessed together by the international rankers, although presumably continuing to function separately in other respects. According to outlookindia:


"All the 13 IITs may compete as a single unit at the global level for a place among the best in the global ranking list.

Giving an indication in this regard, Higher Education Secretary Ashok Thakur said the idea is to position the IITs as a single unit much like the IIT brand which has become an entity in itself for finding a place among the top three best institutes the world-over.

International ranking agencies such as Times Higher Education and QS World University Ranking would be informed accordingly, he said.

Central universities and other institutes could follow on how the IITs position themselves in the ranking list, he said."



Both QS and THE seem eager to do business in India but this is surely a non-starter. Apart from anything else, it could be followed by all the University of California and other US state university campuses, branches of the National University of Ireland and the Indian Institutes of Science and Management coming together for ranking purposes.


Also, the Secretary should consider that if any IIT  follows the lead of Panjab University and joins the Hadron Collider Project or any other multi-contributor, multi-citation project, any gain in the THE citations indicator would be lost if it had to be shared with the other 12 institutes.

Tuesday, January 07, 2014

Explain Please



I have often noticed that some university administrators and educational bureaucrats are clueless about international university rankings, even when their careers depend on a good performance.


The Economic Times of India reports that the Higher Education Secretary in the Human Resource Development Ministry, Ashok Thakur, said "institutions could improve their scores dramatically in Times Higher Education's globally cited World University Rankings as the British magazine has agreed to develop and include India-specific parameters for assessment from the next time."


This sounds like THE is going to insert a new indicator just for India in their world rankings, which is unbelievable. The Hindu puts it a little differently, suggesting that THE is preparing a separate ranking of Indian universities:
 .
"Times Higher Education (THE) — recognised world over for its ranking of higher education institutions — has agreed to draw up an India-specific indicator that would act as a parameter for global education stakeholders and international students to judge Indian educational institutions.
This was disclosed by Higher Education Secretary in the Union Human Resource Development Ministry Ashok Thakur."

It would be interesting to find out what the minister actually said and what, if anything, THE has agreed to.

Ranking News

06/01/14


The latest Times Higher Education international reputation rankings, based on data collected for last year's World University Rankings,  will be announced in Tokyo on March 6th.


The number of responses was 10,536 in 2013, down from 16,639  in 2012 and 17,554 in 2011


Why is the number of responses falling?


Is the decline linked with changes in the scores for the teaching and research indicators criteria, both of which include indicators based on the survey?