Article by Philip Altbach

Inside Higher Education has a substantial and perceptive article on international university rankings by Philip Altbach.

Towards the end there is a round-up of the current season. Some quotations:

On QS
Forty percent of the QS rankings are based on a reputational survey. This probably accounts for the significant variability in the QS rankings over the years. Whether the QS rankings should be taken seriously by the higher education community is questionable.

On ARWU

Some of AWRU’s criteria clearly privilege older, prestigious Western universities — particularly those that have produced or can attract Nobel prizewinners. The universities tend to pay high salaries and have excellent laboratories and libraries. The various indexes used also heavily rely on top peer-reviewed journals in English, again giving an advantage to the universities that house editorial offices and key reviewers. Nonetheless, AWRU’s consistency, clarity of purpose, and transparency are significant advantages.


On THE

Some of the rankings are clearly inaccurate. Why do Bilkent University in Turkey and the Hong Kong Baptist University rank ahead of Michigan State University, the University of Stockholm, or Leiden University in Holland? Why is Alexandria University ranked at all in the top 200? These anomalies, and others, simply do not pass the "smell test." Let it be hoped that these, and no doubt other, problems can be worked out.