The CWUR Rankings 2015

The Center for World University Rankings, based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has produced the latest edition of its global ranking of 1,000 universities.  The Center is headed by Nadim Mahassen, an Assistant Professor at King Abdulaziz University.

The rankings include five indicators that measure various aspects of publication and research: publications in "reputable journals", research papers in "highly influential" journals, citations, h-index and patents.

These indicators are given a combined weighting of 25%.

Another 25% goes to Quality of Education, which is measured by the number of alumni receiving major international awards relative to size (current number of students according to national agencies). This is obviously a  crude measure which fails to distinguish among the great mass of universities that have never won an award.

Similarly, another quarter is assigned to Quality of Faculty measured by the number of faculty receiving such awards and another quarter to Alumni Employment measured by the number of CEOs of top corporations. Again, these indicators are of little or no relevance to all but a few hundred institutions.

Alumni employment gets another 25%. This is measured by alumni holding CEO positions in top companies. Again, this would be of relevance to a limited number of universities.

The Top Ten are:

1.    Harvard

2.    Stanford

3.    MIT

4.    Cambridge

5.    Oxford

6.    Columbia

7.    Berkeley

8.    Chicago

9.    Princeton

10.  Cornell.

The only change from last year is that Cornell has replaced Yale in tenth place.


Countries with Universities in the Top Hundred in 2015 and 2014

Country	Universities in  top 100 2015	2014
US	55	53
UK	7	7
Japan	7	8
Switzerland	4	4
France	4	4
Canada	3	3
Israel	3	3
South Korea	2	1
Germany	2	4
Australia	2	2
China	2	2
Netherlands	2	1
Russia	1	1
Taiwan	1	1
Belgium	1	1
Norway	1	0
Sweden	1	2
Singapore	1	1
Denmark	1	1

Italy

0

1

Top Ranked in Region or Country

USA:                                       Harvard
Canada:                                  Toronto
Asia:                                       Tokyo
South Asia:                             IIT Delhi
Southeast Asia :                      National University of Singapore
Europe:                                   Cambridge
Central and Eastern Europe:    Lomonosov Moscow State University
Arab World:                             King Saud University
Middle East:                             Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Latin America:                         Sao Paulo
Africa:                                      University of the Witwatersrand

Carribbean:                              University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez



Noise Index


In the top 20, the CWUR rankings are more stable than THE and QS but less stable than the Shanghai rankings.

Average position change of universities in the top 20 in 2014: 0.5

Comparison

CWUR 2013-14:            0.9
Shanghai Rankings (ARWU)
2011-12:                        0.15
2012-13:                        0.25
THE WUR  2012-13:      1.2
QS  WUR    2012-13      1.7

With regard to the top 100, the CWUR rankings are more stable this year, with a volatility similar to the QS and THE rankings although significantly less so than ARWU.



Average position change of universities in the top 100 in 2014: 4.15

Comparison

CWUR 2013-14:           10.59

Shanghai Rankings (ARWU
2011-12:                           2.01
2012-13:                           1.66
THE WUR  2012-13:         5.36
QS  WUR    2012-13:    -   3.97