Announcing GRAPE: Global Ranking of Academic Performance
I am surprised that nobody has thought of doing this before.
There are now six international university ranking systems and five of these, World University Rankings (THE-QS London), Academic Ranking of World Universities (Shanghai Jiao Tong University), International Professional Ranking of Higher Education Institutions (Ecole des Mines de Paris), Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities (Taiwan) and Global Ranking of Universities (Russia), provide a numerical score. I have simply added the scores for all universities that were in the top 30 on any one of these, converting the top score for The Paris and Taiwan rankings into 100. The top scorer in the composite ranking was of course Harvard which was awarded a composite score of 100. The other scores were then adjusted accordingly. Yale, Imperial College London, Northewestern and Waseda were not included in the Russian rankings so they were ranked according to their total score for the other four.
There are some interesting results. The University of Tokyo comes in second, with a good record for recent research and for CEOs of big companies. University College London and Imperial College perform poorly. Oxford and Cambridge are slipping a bit and Australian universities do badly.
Here then are the top 30 with the combined scores.
1. Harvard 100
2. University of Tokyo 79.91
3. MIT 74.05
4. Stanford 71.21
5. Columbia 62.61
6. Cambridge 61.87
7. Caltech 59.81
8. Oxford 59.29
9. University of Pennsylvania 57.65
10. Yale 57.00
11. Johns Hopkins 56.7
12. University of California Berkeley 55.22
13. Chicago 54.87
14. Cornell 53.42
15. Kyoto 53.42
16 . UCLA 53.07
17. Duke 52.66
18. Princeton 51.49
19. University College London 50.46
20. Michigan 49.19
21. Imperial College London 47.74
22. University of Washington Seattle 47.08
23. University of California San Diego 45.60
24. Toronto 45.46
25. Northwestern 46.09
26. University of Wisconsin Madison 42.98
27. Manchester 42.49
28. Edinburgh 42.46
29. McGill 42.41
30. University of Illinois Urbana Champagne 41.69
It is also intersting to look at the correlations between the specific rankings and the combined scores. The correlations (top 30 institutions only) are as follows.
Paris .818
Shanghai .815
Taiwan .773
Russia .652
THE-QS .491
Interesting compilation.
ReplyDeleteIt is strange, though, to find such a high correlation with the Paris' ranking since many of the "Top 30" in this ranking are not present in the compilation (are are completely absent of the top 200 of the other rankings).
Hi Richard,
ReplyDeleteGood to finally meet you in KL a couple of weeks ago.
This GRAPE thing, whilst well meaning is a little ill conceived, just because rankings happen to spit out a numeric score doesn't mean they can be meaningfully crunched together like this.
There are two reasons why the thinking is flawed:
1. Rankings use different scoring mechanisms - the QS ranking is normalised meaning that the top x have scores that are naturally close together leading to the natural reality that they have less than their fair share of influence and thus a low correlation. The Paris ranking has a very steep decay which leads to its results having a profound effect and therefore a strong correlation with the compiled results. It would be much more valid to use the rank positions as an inverted score and the lowest score comes top of your mini table
2. It is no less subjective to give the rankings equal weight than it is to apply a considered weighting. Each ranking uses a number of indicators between 1 and in the case of the Russian ranking 20. Essentially your approach provides a full 20% to the single indicator used in the Paris Ranking and a total of 1% to each indicator used in the Russian ranking. Even if all five exercises could be objectively classified as equally valid this seems a little too much of a blunt instrument.
Ultimately, of course, its just a little fun, but a good example of how the statistical dynamics behind a straightforward idea can have a profound impact on the outcome.
Thanks,
Ben Sowter
Head of Research
QS
Cambridge should be ranked in the top 4 but it is now at 6th and lower than University of Tokyo.
ReplyDeleterankingwatch.blogspot.com; You saved my day again.
ReplyDeleteTimes Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings were widely recognized as one of the leading global university ranking systems. These rankings are typically updated annually, with the latest data and methodology adjustments reflecting changes in the higher education landscape.To excel in the pharmaceutical representative job search, start by obtaining a relevant degree and networking within the industry. Customize your resume and cover letter, highlighting your product knowledge and communication skills. Research companies thoroughly and consider informational interviews. Stay persistent and informed about industry trends to enhance your chances of securing a position.US Postal Service Jobs
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