“The big problem with the Asiaweek rankings of 1999-2000 was that they relied on data submitted by universities. This meant that if enough were dissatisfied they could effectively sabotage the rankings by withholding information, which is in fact what happened …” (more)
[University Ranking Watch, 22 March]
“Anybody who has been following the debate surrounding world university rankings in the last year or so will have raised an eyebrow at the recent publication by Times Higher Education of a ranking based entirely upon academic assessment of institutional reputation. This ranking was an attention-grabbing stunt. But how much new light does it really shed on the world’s top universities? …” (more)
[Danny Byrne, University World News, 20 March]
“… Rankings are essentially one-dimensional, since each indicator is considered independently. But in reality the indicators are interdependent. For example, older, well-endowed private universities are more likely to have better faculty-student ratios and per-student expenditures than those of newer, public institutions …” (more)
[Ellen Hazelkorn, Chronicle of Higher Education, 13 March]
“The Times Higher Education Supplement has graced us with yet another form on university ranking system. Such rankings are problematic at the best of times: both oversimplifying the complex alchemy that creates a great educational experience for an individual student, or the growth medium upon which a great research idea takes hold, while also employing methodologies that measure what can be counted, rather than those things that make a university able to deliver on its mission …” (more)
[Jane Ohlmeyer, 14 March]
“Six American and United Kingdom universities are in a super league of their own when it comes to reputation, according to an invitation-only survey of more than 13,000 academics in 131 countries …” (more)
[Brendan O’Malley, University World News, 13 March]
“2/2 @MikeLyons1956 So, question for all #tcdprovost candidates: why take rankings seriously enough to base policy on them?” (tweet)
[Eoin O’Dell, Twitter, 10 March]
“Not one Irish university has made the grade for a list of the world’s top 100, as chosen by 13,000 international academics …” (more)
[TheJournal.ie, 10 March]
“Ireland’s two biggest universities fail to rate among the world’s top 100 for teaching and research in the view of international academics. They are, however, among the top 26 in Europe, according to the latest global league table …” (more)
[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 10 March]
“A university’s brand – crucial in helping to attract students, staff and funding – is built on esteem. Times Higher Education‘s first World Reputation Rankings reveal how academics view the strength of institutions’ teaching and research …” (more)
[John Morgan, Times Higher Education, 10 March]
“… But it’s hard to view the Mines ParisTech effort as anything but cynical. Yes, other global rankings have many shortcomings; there’s absolutely a case to be made that they don’t do justice to the strengths of certain French institutions, among others. Still, I don’t buy Mines ParisTech’s argument that it is simply engaging in the business-world equivalent of the academic honor-counting undertaken by the Shanghai rankers …” (more)
[Ben Wildavsky, Chronicle of Higher Education, 7 March]
“… the reality is that date of establishment clearly has a part to play in the current success profile of universities. In broad terms, universities over 100 years old, and perhaps those over 50, have already reached their ‘terminal velocity’ …” (more)
[QS Intelligence Unit, 7 March]
“The fifth edition of the Professional Ranking of World Universities from Paris Mines Tech has just been published. This is based on one indicator, the number of top corporate CEOs …” (more)
[University Ranking Watch, 6 March]
“I have just finished calculating the correlation between the scores for the academic survey and citations per faculty on the 2010 QS world University rankings …” (more)
[University Ranking Watch, 26 February]
“The use of citations as a measure of research quality was highlighted by the remarkable performance of Alexandria University, Bilkent University, Hong Kong Baptist University and others in the 2010 Times Higher Education World University Rankings …” (more)
[University Ranking Watch, 21 February]
“It was recently announced that the Excellence in Research for Australia initiative will remain largely unchanged in the coming year, and will remain as an instrument used by the Australian government to determine the level of research funding available to Australian universities …” (more)
[Simon Cooper and Anna Poletti, University World News, 13 February]
“Education deans from some of the top research universities in the United States have called on US News & World Report to rethink its plans for evaluating teacher education programs. In a joint letter, the deans questioned not only the methodology to be used, but also the magazine’s plan to say that institutions that don’t participate have ‘failed’ to meet certain standards …” (more)
[Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, 8 February]
“If you take a look at the Times Higher Education world university rankings, you will see that, apart from the United Kingdom, only one European country has a university in the global top 20 – and that’s Switzerland, which isn’t even in the European Union …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 6 February]
“John Hearn and Alan Robson urge universities to refocus on the reality of individual missions, not rankings’ absurd lists. The 2010 world university league tables have brought to the fore long-held concerns about their integrity, veracity and credibility …” (more)
[Times Higher Education, 3 February]
“A ranking that contained only a single indicator would not be very interesting. Providing that the indicators are actually measuring different things, rankings with many indicators would contain more information. On the other hand, the more indicators there are the more likely it is that some will be redundant …” (more)
[University Ranking Watch, 3 February]
“The first attempt to assess the quality of research conducted in Australia’s universities shows the oldest and most elite institutions filling the top eight spots …” (more)
[Julia Hare, The Australian, 31 January]
Ninth Level Ireland 