Comments on the THES Rankings

Professor Thomas W. Simon, a Fulbright scholar, has this to say about the THES rankings on a Malaysian blog.


Legitimate appearance
Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), the corporate engine behind the THES rankings, sells consulting for business education, job fairs, and other services. Its entrepreneurial, award winning CEO, Nunzio Quacquarelli, noted that Asian universities hardly ever made the grade in previous ranking studies. Curiously, on the last QS rankings, Asian universities improved dramatically. They accounted for nearly 30% of the top 100 slots. Did QS choose its methodology to reflect some desired trends?QS has managed to persuade academics to accept a business ploy as an academic report. Both The Economist and THES provide a cover by giving the rankings the appearance of legitimacy. Shockingly, many educators have rushed to get tickets and to perform for the magic show, yet it has no more credibility than a fairy tale and as much objectivity as a ranking of the world's most scenic spots.

Major flaws
It would be difficult to list all the flaws, but let us consider a few critical problems. Scientists expose their data to public criticism whereas QS has not published its raw data or detailed methodologies. The survey cleverly misuses scholarly terms to describe its methodology. THES calls its opinion poll (of over 2,000 academic experts) “peer review”, but an opinion poll of 2,000 self-proclaimed academic experts bears no resemblance to scholars submitting their research to those with expertise in a narrow field. Further, from one year to the next, QS unapologetically changed the weighting (from 50% peer review to 40%) and added new categories (employer surveys, 10%).

He concludes:

Concerned individuals should expose the QS/THES scandal. Some scholars have done scathing critiques of pieces of the survey, however, they now should launch an all out attack. Fortunately, this survey is only few years old. Let us stop it before it grows to maturity and finds a safe niche in an increasingly commercialised global world.