You often hear about “Number 1 University in the world’ or “The Best University Globally’. But how do you know that the university is indeed the best in the world? Who gets to decide that particular university is good and how does a university get measured in terms of ranking? These are the type of questions most students and parents ask.
Not only that, you sometimes wonder why universities have different ranks in different university ranking systems. This is because each university ranking system has its own methodology to rank universities which is why the ranking results vary.
In this article, we will show you the top 3 established and most influential university global rankings, their methodologies and the importance of the ranking criterias for a university.
Academic Ranking of World Universities ( ARWU)
This first global ranking system in the world is also known as Shanghai Ranking. ARWU was first published in June 2003 and the ranking is updated on an annual basis. They have strict criterias in ensuring their ranking systems stay on top of the game
Methodology:
There are 2 steps in ARWU system:
1. University selection:
- There are few criterias for ARWU to include universities in their ranking systems. The universities must has:
- Nobel Laureates
- Fields Medalists
- Highly Cited Researchers, Papers Published in Nature or Science
- A significant amount of papers indexed by Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI)
Therefore, more than 1800 universities are actually ranked and the best 1000 are published.
2. Criterias:
Universities will then be ranked according to 4 criterias using the objective indicators:
Criteria | Objective Indicator |
Quality of Education | Number of alumni winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals |
Quality of Faculty | – Number of staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals – Number of cited research |
Research Output | – Number of papers published in journals of Nature and Science – Number of papers indexed in Science Citation Index – Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index |
Per Capita Performance | Per capita academic performance of the university |
Reviews:
- The EU Research Headlines stated that “The universities were carefully evaluated using several indicators of research performance.”
- Professor Simon Margison of Institute of Education from University of London wrote that in terms of data quality, ARWU has no areas of fundamental weaknesses.
Our take:
ARWU emphasis heavily on research performance. This means, universities will be ranked in a high place if they conduct many high quality researches. If you want to focus on doing research during your tertiary study, it is recommended to use ARWU ranking systems as a guide before deciding which university you want to go to.
Top 15 ARWU World University Universities 2019 in Australia
Global Rank | Australia Rank | University |
41 | 1 | The University of Melbourne |
54 | 2 | The University of Queensland |
73 | 3 | Monash University |
76 | 4 | The Australian National University |
80 | 5 | University of Sydney |
94 | 6 | The University of New South Wales |
99 | 7 | The University of Western Australia |
101-150 | 8 | The University of Adelaide |
201-300 | 9-15 | Curtin University |
201-300 | 9-15 | Deakin University |
201-300 | 9-15 | James Cook University |
201-300 | 9-15 | Macquarie University |
201-300 | 9-15 | University of Tasmania |
201-300 | 9-15 | University of Technology Sydney (UTS) |
201-300 | 9-15 | University of Wollongong |
QS World University Ranking
Quacquarelli Symonds or commonly known as QS, used to collaborate with Times Higher Education (THE) and they were known as Times Higher Education- QS World University Rankings. In 2009, they announced their own independent rankings and QS chose to maintain their existing methodology while THE adopted a new system. QS published their rankings on an annual basis just like ARWU.
Methodology
QS rankings are based on 4 pillars which are teaching, research, employability and internationalization. Then these 4 key pillars will be assessed using 6 simple metrics to capture university performance and they are:
- Academic Reputation
- Employer Reputation
- Faculty/Student Ratio
- Citations per faculty
- International Faculty Ratio
- International Student Ratio
Review:
The International Ranking Expert Group (IREG) approved this ranking system.
Our take:
QS collects data for the university rankings by using surveys on over 94,000 individuals and this is very subjective. However, QS publishes rankings for many subjects such as Life Sciences & Medicine, Natural Sciences and Arts & Humanities. Not only that, QS publishes graduate employability rankings and this can help students to navigate universities that employers are most likely to hire upon graduation. Therefore, if you want to go to a top university according to the subject or top universities in terms of employability, QS World Ranking Systems is the guide that you can refer to.
Below are the top Australian universities according to QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2020.
QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2020 in Australia
Global Rank | Australia Rank | University |
4 | 1 | The University of Sydney |
7 | 2 | The University of Melbourne |
27 | 3 | The University of New South Wales (UNSW) |
57 | 4 | The University of Queensland |
66 | 5 | The Australian National University |
66 | 6 | Monash University |
69 | 7 | University of Technology Sydney (UTS) |
77 | 8 | RMIT University |
101-110 | 9 | Macquarie University |
101-110 | 10 | Queensland University of Technology (QUT) |
151-160 | 11 | The University of Western Australia |
171-180 | 12 | The University of Adelaide |
171-180 | 13 | University of Wollongong |
201-250 | 14 | Deakin University |
251-300 | 15 | Curtin University |
301-500 | 16 | Central Queensland University (CQUniversity Australia) |
301-500 | 17 | Griffith University |
301-500 | 18 | La Trobe University |
301-500 | 19 | University of South Australia |
301-500 | 20 | Western Sydney University |
Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE)
THE is based in London and partners with Thomson Reuters, Canadian multinational media conglomerate, to publish the university rankings after the end of their business relationship with QS. THE took pride in their ranking system as they state the process of collecting the data are scrupulous and transparent.
Methodology:
THE uses 13 performance indicators that are grouped into 5 areas:
Areas | Performance Indicators |
Teaching (The Learning Environment) |
|
Research (Volume, Income & Reputation) |
|
Citations (Research Influence) |
|
International Outlook (Staff, Students & Research) |
|
Industry Income (Knowledge Transfer) |
|
Review:
The THE World University Rankings 2020 was independently audited by professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). This makes THE is the only global university rankings to receive a full and independent scrutiny.
Our take:
THE relies on citations when assessing the universities and this is a metric that is subject to manipulation However, their recent 2020 rankings are safe to say that it is objective due to PwC. THE also publish rankings that assess universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Therefore students that prefer to study in top universities that care about the environment can refer to THE rankings.
Below are the top 10 universities in Impact Rankings 2020 that assess universities performance against United Nations’ Sustainable Developments Goals.
THE Impact Rankings 2020
Rank | Universities | Country |
1 | University of Auckland | New Zealand |
2 | University of Sydney | Australia |
3 | Western Sydney University | Australia |
4 | La Trobe University | Australia |
5 | Arizona State University | United States |
6 | University of Bologna | Italy |
7 | University of British Columbia | Canada |
8 | University of Manchester | United Kingdom |
9 | King’s College London | United Kingdom |
10 | RMIT University | Australia |
So, now you know about how universities get ranked according to the 3 systems. So, if you have further questions about universities in Australia, Malaysia and the United Kingdom, do not hesitate to contact us. We are here to help you and the best part is our consultation service is FREE!
Read More:
Top Universities for Psychology in Australia 2020
Top 5 Universities to Study Banking & Finance in Malaysia (2020)
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Stephanie Calamba
Part time ACCA student, part time content writer but full time child of God.
