THES - QS World University Rankings

The THES - QS World University Rankings is an annual publication of university rankings around the world, published by The Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). The full listings feature on the QS website and on the THES website. They have been running since 2004 and are broken down by subject and region.

The ranking weights are:

Peer Review Score (40%)
Recruiter Review (10%)
International Faculty Score (5%)
International Students Score (5%)
Faculty/Student Score (20%)
Citations/Faculty score (20%).

THES - QS World University Rankings (Top 20)

2006 Rankings	2005 Rankings	2004 Rankings	University	Country	Average Score
1	1	1	Harvard University	US	100.0
2	3	6	University of Cambridge	UK	96.8
3	4	5	University of Oxford	UK	92.7
4=	2	3	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	US	89.2
4=	7	8	Yale University	US	89.2
6	5	7	Stanford University	US	85.4
7	8	4	California Institute of Technology	US	83.8
8	6	2	University of California, Berkeley	US	80.4
9	13	14	Imperial College London	UK	78.6
10	9	9	Princeton University	US	74.2
11	17	13	University of Chicago	US	69.8
12	20	19	Columbia University	US	69.0
13	11=	52	Duke University	US	68.3
14	15	17	Peking University	China	67.9
15	14	23	Cornell University	US	65.9
16	23	16	Australian National University	Australia	64.8
17	11=	11	London School of Economics	UK	63.9
18	24	30	École Normale Supérieure	France	63.3
19=	22	18	National University of Singapore	Singapore	63.1
19=	16	12	Tokyo University	Japan	63.1

Controversy

Despite Peter Drucker predicting in Forbes (1997) that "Thirty years from now the big university campuses will be relics…I consider the American research university of the past 40 years to be a failure", Professor Nigel Healey of the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, cites the rankings as demonstration of the continued prominence of US universities within global higher education. Professor Healey also notes that the "new transparency provided by the THES-QS World University Rankings" makes the global higher education market much more competitive.^[1]. It should be noted that the University of Canterbury places in the bottom 400 of the THES list.

University applicants and students find rankings to be very helpful in their search for a university which will help their career, post-graduation, by directing them to the universities employers prefer. One of the five main criteria for the THES-QS World University Rankings is employability, based on a global survey of graduate employers.^[2] Alison Doorbar of JWT Education Australia, whilst presenting at the Going Global conference in Edinburgh in December 2006, reported that "Rankings play a key role in guiding young people towards their choice of university. In a JWT global student survey, a significant majority of students reported that they find rankings to be extremely useful."

Words of support and caution come from Marguerite Clarke, Senior Education Specialist at the World Bank, who provided a perspective on the social impact of rankings during the QS Asia Pacific Professional Leaders in Education Conferencein Hong Kong in July 2007. She comments on the impact of rankings on student access, choice and opportunity^[3]:

- Opportunity - Rankings affect employment and earnings outcomes for graduates of certain programs. Global rankings are encouraging governments to offer fast-track visas for graduates of top programs.

- Choice - "A school’s rank affects the size and profile of its applicant pool. Global rankings are affecting application flows."

- Access – "US domestic rankings are contributing to the racial and economic stratification of the U.S. higher education system. However, global rankings are creating pressure for meritocracy and stimulating government funding for universities around the world."

Clarke notes^[4] that "rankings can provide valuable information but must be used with caution". She encourages the producers of rankings to "- periodically review methodologies – take note of how rankings are being perceived and used and reward schools for success in educating students" (excessive emphasis on research output and citations is a concern).

She also advises students and parents to "recognize that rankings are not necessarily predictive of quality of education or opportunities after graduation." She cautions students of low income families from incurring large debt by focusing exclusively on the most expensive and highly ranked universities overseas – “the full cost of 4 years at a private university in the USA can be as much as $240,000”.

The THES - QS World University Rankings have been criticized^[5] for placing too much emphasis on Peer Review, which receives 40% of the overall score. Some have expressed concern on the dubious manner in which the peer review has been carried out. In a certain report^[6], Peter Wills from the University of Auckland, New Zealand wrote of the QS-THES Ranking:

'But we note also that this survey establishes its rankings by appealing to university staff, even offering financial enticements to participate (see Appendix II). Staff are likely to feel it is in their greatest interest to rank their own institution more highly than others. This means the results of the survey and any apparent change in ranking are highly questionable, and that a high ranking has no real intrinsic value in any case. We are vehemently opposed to the evaluation of the University according to the outcome of such PR competitions.'

Some errors have also been reported on the faculty-student ratio used in the ranking. At the 16th Annual New Zealand International Education Conference held at Christchurch, New Zealand in August 2007, Simon Marginson presented a paper^[7] which outlines the fundamental flaws underlying the QS-THES Rankings. A similar article^[8] (also published by the same author) appeared in The Australian newspaper in December 2006. Some of the points mentioned include:

a. Half of the THES index is comprised by existing reputation: 40 per cent by a reputational survey of academics (‘peer review’), and another 10 per cent determined by a survey of ‘global employers’. The THES index is too easily open to manipulation as It is not specified who is surveyed or what questions are asked. By changing the recipients of the surveys, or the way the survey results are factored in, the results can be shifted markedly.

b. The pool of responses is heavily weighted in favour of academic ‘peers’ from nations where the Times is well-known, such as the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and so on.

c. Results have been highly volatile. There have been many sharp rises and falls, especially in the second half of the THES top200 where small differences in metrics can generate large rankings effects. Fudan in China has oscillated between 72 and 195, RMIT in Australia between 55 and 146. In the US, Emory has risen from 173 to 56 and Purdue fell from 59 to 127.

d. The British universities do too well in the THES table. They have done better each successive year. This year Cambridge and Oxford suddenly improved their performance despite Oxford's present problems. The British have two of the THES top three and Cambridge has almost closed the gap on Harvard. Yet the British universities are manifestly under-funded^[9] and the Harvard faculty is cited at 3 1/2 times the rate of its British counterparts. It does not add up.

e. The performance of the Australian universities is also inflated. Despite a relatively poor citation rate and moderate staffing ratios they do exceptionally well in the reputational academic survey and internationalisation indicators, especially that for students. Australia has 13 of the THES top 200 and appears as the third strongest system in the world, ahead of Japan, Canada, Germany and western Europe (the G7 nations). This makes sense in relation to Australia’s international marketing but not all round performance or reputation.

f. It’s good when people say nice things about you, but if it is better when those things are true. It is hard to resist the temptation to use the THES rankings in institutional marketing, but it would be a serious strategic error to assume that they are soundly based.

Contrary to the Academic Ranking of World Universities compiled by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University of which the ranking methodology was defended and published^[10] in a reputable journal, the QS-THES ranking has never been defended in any scholarly journal^[11].

References

External links

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THES - QS World University Rankings