World University Rankings 2010-11: Ranking Ranking everywhere, not one that I believe!!!

Times Higher Education Supplement kicks off 2011 with their World Rankings… I question the need to rank…

Rankings of World Universities are indeed an exercise that is looked for with some amount of eagerness. This is primarily because US has transported its “ranking culture” to rest of us around the world too. It is an inane exercise and anyone of us who has been an observer of the way rankings sway from year to year, it leaves us more baffled than ever.

IMPORTANTLY, is it possible to compare apples with oranges. Except for the fact that they are both fruits, they just cannot and should not be compared. Similarly, Universities differ in their structure and focus between regions of the world. The American Universities have a completely different model to rest and closer home, in India, the Universities are almost always multi-college setups. Taking the example of the University that tutored me: Delhi University has possibly 50 odd colleges for each of the disciplines taught and each vary greatly in standards and quality including perceived quality plus reputation. I happened to study at SRCC which often tops Indian Ranking Charts for business courses but having marketed institutions around the world, I can say for sure that the program of study even in my college was completely non-comparable to the ones taught at even lower ranked institutions around the world. Without pointing fingers at my college, I am actually hammering anther key difference here. **In India, the rankings are of colleges and not of Universities and that makes more sense again.** We know that colleges differ and a student who studies at a high-ranked college tends to refer to his college as the alma mater and not the University even though the degree of the University. “I studied at SRCC, Stephens, Xaviers or Loyola…” is heard more than “I studied at Delhi, Kolkata or Madras University”. Hence for us to be ranked with world Universities is not just tricky but very superficial. Can I also add: Very Unfair.

We may be overjoyed to see Delhi ranked in top 500 in one of the rankings but I would ask, how was this ranking done. Is it possible to really make comparison between a multi-college University to one-college University. Is it possible to compare Universities that teach by semesters and grade by semesters to those that teach by year and grade by year. Maybe yes. However not sure if that makes sense. I would rather choose studying in Stephens or SRCC (cannot say LSR for technical reasons) because of what I know of them than the fact that their parent University ranks between 400 and 500 in the world.

Anyway, there are other issues with rankings too. The world rankings of repute that we have all referred to till two years ago has been the THES or Times Higher Education Supplement rankings. The point to remember is that the rankings was done by QS for THES till then.

**Last year, QS and THES split and both of them have their own rankings now.**

**QS rankings for 2010 is on link**

**THES ranking of 2010 is on link**

Now we arrive at the first major ranking released for 2011. THES has just released their 2011 ranking on their site. I provide the top 100 by them below. With this the wait begins for the QS rankings 2011 which is generally regarded as the more accurate…

TOP UNIVERSITIES BY REPUTATION 2011 THES
REPUTATION RANK	INSTITUTION	COUNTRY / REGION	REPUTATION change
1	Harvard University	United States	100.0
2	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States	85.0
3	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom	80.7
4	University of California Berkeley	United States	74.7
5	Stanford University	United States	71.5
6	University of Oxford	United Kingdom	68.6
7	Princeton University	United States	36.6
8	University of Tokyo	Japan	33.2
9	Yale University	United States	28.3
10	California Institute of Technology	United States	23.5
11	Imperial College London	United Kingdom	22.6
12	University of California Los Angeles	United States	22.4
13	University of Michigan	United States	19.8
14	Johns Hopkins University	United States	19.4
15	University of Chicago	United States	17.8
16	Cornell University	United States	17.5
17	University of Toronto	Canada	17.0
18	Kyoto University	Japan	15.5
19	University College London	United Kingdom	14.2
19	University of Massachusetts	United States	14.2
21	University of Illinois – Urbana	United States	13.6
22	University of Pennsylvania	United States	13.4
23	Columbia University	United States	13.3
24	Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich	Switzerland	12.3
25	University of Wisconsin	United States	11.7
26	University of Washington	United States	11.2
27	National University of Singapore	Singapore	10.4
28	Carnegie Mellon University	United States	10.0
29	McGill University	Canada	9.9
30	University of California San Diego	United States	9.8
31	University of British Columbia	Canada	9.3
31	University of Texas at Austin	United States	9.3
33	Lomonosov Moscow State University	Russian Federation	9.0
34	University of California San Francisco	United States	8.9
35	Tsinghua University	China	8.7
36	Duke University	United States	8.5
37	London School of Economics and Political Science	United Kingdom	8.4
38	University of California Davis	United States	7.6
39	Georgia Institute of Technology	United States	7.5
40	Northwestern University	United States	7.4
41	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill	United States	7.0
42	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong	6.9
43	Peking University	China	6.6
43	University of Minnesota	United States	6.6
45	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom	6.5
45	University of Melbourne	Australia	6.5
47	Purdue University	United States	6.4
48	University of Munich	Germany	6.3
49	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands	6.2
50	Osaka University	Japan	5.9

51-60 GROUP
REPUTATION RANK	INSTITUTION	COUNTRY / REGION	REPUTATION
51-60	Australian National University	Australia	Data withheld
51-60	Karolinska Institute	Sweden	Data withheld
51-60	New York University	United States	Data withheld
51-60	Ohio State University	United States	Data withheld
51-60	Seoul National University	Republic of Korea	Data withheld
51-60	Tohoku University	Japan	Data withheld
51-60	Tokyo Institute of Technology	Japan	Data withheld
51-60	University of California Santa Barbara	United States	Data withheld
51-60	University of Pittsburgh	United States	Data withheld
51-60	University of Sydney	Australia	Data withheld

61-70 GROUP
REPUTATION RANK	INSTITUTION	COUNTRY / REGION	REPUTATION
61-70	Boston University	United States	Data withheld
61-70	Ecole Polytechnique	France	Data withheld
61-70	King’s College London	United Kingdom	Data withheld
61-70	Pennsylvania State University	United States	Data withheld
61-70	Technical University of Munich	Germany	Data withheld
61-70	University of Florida	United States	Data withheld
61-70	University of Manchester	United Kingdom	Data withheld
61-70	University of Maryland College Park	United States	Data withheld
61-70	University of Zurich	Switzerland	Data withheld
61-70	Uppsala University	Sweden	Data withheld

71-80 GROUP
REPUTATION RANK	INSTITUTION	COUNTRY / REGION	REPUTATION
71-80	École Polytechnique Federale of Lausanne	Switzerland	Data withheld
71-80	Humboldt University of Berlin	Germany	Data withheld
71-80	Lund University	Sweden	Data withheld
71-80	Michigan State University	United States	Data withheld
71-80	Rutgers the State University of New Jersey	United States	Data withheld
71-80	University of Arizona	United States	Data withheld
71-80	University of Colorado	United States	Data withheld
71-80	University of Southern California	United States	Data withheld
71-80	Utrecht University	Netherlands	Data withheld
71-80	Washington University Saint Louis	United States	Data withheld

81-90 GROUP
REPUTATION RANK	INSTITUTION	COUNTRY / REGION	REPUTATION
81-90	Catholic University of Leuven	Belgium	Data withheld
81-90	Indiana University	United States	Data withheld
81-90	Leiden University	Netherlands	Data withheld
81-90	National Taiwan University	Taiwan	Data withheld
81-90	Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg	Germany	Data withheld
81-90	Texas A&M University	United States	Data withheld
81-90	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands	Data withheld
81-90	University of Bristol	United Kingdom	Data withheld
81-90	University of Leeds	United Kingdom	Data withheld
81-90	University of Queensland Australia	Australia	Data withheld

91-100 GROUP
REPUTATION RANK	INSTITUTION	COUNTRY / REGION	REPUTATION
91-100	Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong	Data withheld
91-100	Indian Institute of Science	India	Data withheld
91-100	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology	Republic of Korea	Data withheld
91-100	London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine	United Kingdom	Data withheld
91-100	Nanyang Technological University	Singapore	Data withheld
91-100	University of Helsinki	Finland	Data withheld
91-100	University of Paris Pantheon Sorbonne	France	Data withheld
91-100	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom	Data withheld
91-100	University of Vienna	Austria	Data withheld
91-100	University of Waterloo	Canada	Data withheld

Ravi’s note: The above ranking signals one major development from Indian perspective. Indian Institute of Science has broken into the top 100. This angers me even more and puts a doubt on the full methodology. Not because that our Indian institution doesnot deserve to be there but more because it is just not possible to compare Indian Institute of Science which is largely research centric and post-graduate institution of excellence with many others in the list. The other institutions are also multi-disciplinary and teaching-oriented institutions. Indian Institute of Science is amongst the world leaders and possibly in top 10 of the institutions of its kind. We are once again comparing apples with pineapples.

Anyway guys, enjoy. I intend taking out my own world rankings as soon as I wake up. Its easy and can do it even before my morning cup of “chai”. Pen and Paper please… To confuse you and to ensure that it draws credibility, will detail a methodology and process that only you will try and decipher. Not the student who looks at it. What a joke this ranking thing has become!

The word university is derived from the Latin “universitas magistrorum et scholarium”, roughly meaning “community of teachers and scholars.

“University rankings” is one of the hottest issues, which continue to attract students & parents world-wide. The two highest profile ranking systems, of course, are the QS Rankings and the THES Rankings, both of which focus on what might constitute a world class university, and on the basis of that, who is ranked where.
This type of ranking begins with the questions:
why do we have university systems?
What are these systems intended to do?
And what do we expect them to deliver – to society, to individuals and to the world at large?

I think we must have a more elaborated type of University Ranking based on many more revised criteria other than those already taken in count, like:
1. Be specific: The ranking should be course oriented at first, not a generalized one.
A business school can not be compared with a law school.
2. Inclusiveness – number of students enrolled in the tertiary sector relative to the size of its population
3. Access – ability of a country’s tertiary system to accept and help advance students with a low level of scholastic aptitude
4. Effectiveness – ability of country’s education system to produce graduates with skills relevant to the country’s labour market (wage premia is the measure)
5. Attractiveness – ability of a country’s system to attract a diverse range of foreign students (using the top 10 source countries)
6. Age range – ability of a country’s tertiary system to function as a lifelong learning institution (share of 30-39 year olds enrolled)
7. Responsiveness – ability of the system to reform and change
8. Social Responsibility – Whether it is delivering proper education or not.
“What is proper education?
Real education is that which enables one to stand on one’s own legs. The education that you are receiving now in schools and colleges is only making you a race of dyspeptics. You are working like machines merely, and living a jelly fish existence.
We must have life-building, man-making, character-making assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library….Swami Vivekananda.
9. Quality and quality assurance system: The criteria vary according to objectives and disciplines, and assessments apply to conditions that can often not be quantified. Moreover, quality changes with the development of disciplines, educational activities and environments, while different interested parties place varying emphasis on different aspects of it. However, three factors have a central place: quality as viewed by the students, quality in terms of the fulfillment of recognized academic objectives and quality in terms of the broad social relevance of courses.
10. Appropriate & effective use of technology: University like, “Calcutta University” have to work on this a lot…

Over the past few months there have been numerous heated public interventions about this matter – from whether universities should be little more than giant patenting offices to whether they should be managers of social justice systems.
And though there are evident shortcomings such as the lack of clarity about what might count as a university; the view that a university-based education is the most suitable form of education to produce a knowledge-based economy and society; what is the equity/access etc range within any one country, and so on.
However, the big question now is whether universities will see value in this kind of ranking system for its wider systemic, as opposed to institutional, possibilities, even if it is as a basis for discussing what are universities for and how might we produce more equitable knowledge societies and economies.

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1 Comment

Santanu Bag says:

12 Mar 2011 at 12:54 pm

The word university is derived from the Latin “universitas magistrorum et scholarium”, roughly meaning “community of teachers and scholars.

“University rankings” is one of the hottest issues, which continue to attract students & parents world-wide. The two highest profile ranking systems, of course, are the QS Rankings and the THES Rankings, both of which focus on what might constitute a world class university, and on the basis of that, who is ranked where.
This type of ranking begins with the questions:
why do we have university systems?
What are these systems intended to do?
And what do we expect them to deliver – to society, to individuals and to the world at large?

I think we must have a more elaborated type of University Ranking based on many more revised criteria other than those already taken in count, like:
1. Be specific: The ranking should be course oriented at first, not a generalized one.
A business school can not be compared with a law school.
2. Inclusiveness – number of students enrolled in the tertiary sector relative to the size of its population
3. Access – ability of a country’s tertiary system to accept and help advance students with a low level of scholastic aptitude
4. Effectiveness – ability of country’s education system to produce graduates with skills relevant to the country’s labour market (wage premia is the measure)
5. Attractiveness – ability of a country’s system to attract a diverse range of foreign students (using the top 10 source countries)
6. Age range – ability of a country’s tertiary system to function as a lifelong learning institution (share of 30-39 year olds enrolled)
7. Responsiveness – ability of the system to reform and change
8. Social Responsibility – Whether it is delivering proper education or not.
“What is proper education?
Real education is that which enables one to stand on one’s own legs. The education that you are receiving now in schools and colleges is only making you a race of dyspeptics. You are working like machines merely, and living a jelly fish existence.
We must have life-building, man-making, character-making assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library….Swami Vivekananda.
9. Quality and quality assurance system: The criteria vary according to objectives and disciplines, and assessments apply to conditions that can often not be quantified. Moreover, quality changes with the development of disciplines, educational activities and environments, while different interested parties place varying emphasis on different aspects of it. However, three factors have a central place: quality as viewed by the students, quality in terms of the fulfillment of recognized academic objectives and quality in terms of the broad social relevance of courses.
10. Appropriate & effective use of technology: University like, “Calcutta University” have to work on this a lot…

Over the past few months there have been numerous heated public interventions about this matter – from whether universities should be little more than giant patenting offices to whether they should be managers of social justice systems.
And though there are evident shortcomings such as the lack of clarity about what might count as a university; the view that a university-based education is the most suitable form of education to produce a knowledge-based economy and society; what is the equity/access etc range within any one country, and so on.
However, the big question now is whether universities will see value in this kind of ranking system for its wider systemic, as opposed to institutional, possibilities, even if it is as a basis for discussing what are universities for and how might we produce more equitable knowledge societies and economies.

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