THE World University Rankings: Indicator Correlations

I was going to wait until next week to do this but the publication of the latest edition of the THE world rankings is coming and there may be a new methodology.

The current THE methodology is based on five indicators or indicator groups: Teaching (5 indicators), Research (3 indicators), Citations, Income from Industry, International Outlook (3 indicators).

Looking at the analysis of 1526 cases (using PSPP), we can see that the correlation between Teaching and Research is very high, .89, and fairly good between those two and Citations. Teaching and Research both include surveys of teaching and research, which have been shown to yield vary similar results. Also, Teaching includes Institutional Income and Research Income, which are likely to be closely related.

The Citations indicator has a moderate correlation with Teaching and Research, as noted, and also with International Outlook.

The correlations between Industry Income and Teaching and Research are moderate and those with Citations and International Outlook are low, .20 and .18 respectively. The Industry Income indicator is close to worthless since the definition of income is apparently interpreted in several different ways and may have little relation to financial reality. International Outlook correlates modestly with the other indicators except for Industry Income.

It seems there is little point in distinguishing between the Teaching and Research indicators since they are both influenced by income, reputation, and large doctoral programmes. The Industry Income indicator has little validity and will probably, with very good reason, be removed, from the THE rankings.

CORRELATIONS

CORRELATION
	/VARIABLES =  teaching research citations industry international weightedtotal
	/PRINT = TWOTAIL SIG.

Correlations

		teaching	research	citations	industry	international	weightedtotal
teaching	Pearson Correlation	1.00	.89	.51	.45	.38	.83
	Sig. (2-tailed)		.000	.000	.000	.000	.000
	N	1526	1526	1526	1526	1526	1526
research	Pearson Correlation	.89	1.00	.59	.53	.54	.90
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000		.000	.000	.000	.000
	N	1526	1526	1526	1526	1526	1526
citations	Pearson Correlation	.51	.59	1.00	.20	.57	.87
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000	.000		.000	.000	.000
	N	1526	1526	1526	1526	1526	1526
industry	Pearson Correlation	.45	.53	.20	1.00	.18	.42
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000	.000	.000		.000	.000
	N	1526	1526	1526	1526	1526	1526
international	Pearson Correlation	.38	.54	.57	.18	1.00	.65
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000	.000	.000	.000		.000
	N	1526	1526	1526	1526	1526	1526
weightedtotal	Pearson Correlation	.83	.90	.87	.42	.65	1.00
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000
	N	1526	1526	1526	1526	1526	1526

Most people are probably more concerned with distinctions among the world's elite or would be elite universities. Turning to the top 200 of the THE rankings, the correlation between Teaching and Research, is again very high, suggesting that these are measuring virtually the same thing.

The Citations indicator has a low correlation with International Outlook, a low and insignificant correlation with Teaching and Research, and a negative and insignificant correlation with Industry Income. 

Industry Income  has low correlations with Research and Teaching and negative with Citations and International Outlook.

It would seem that THE world rankings are not helpful for evaluating the quality of the global elite. A new methodology will be most welcome.

CORRELATIONS

CORRELATION
	/VARIABLES =  teaching research citations industry international weightedtotal
	/PRINT = TWOTAIL SIG.

Correlations

		teaching	research	citations	industry	international	weightedtotal
teaching	Pearson Correlation	1.00	.90	.02	.23	-.11	.89
	Sig. (2-tailed)		.000	.768	.001	.114	.000
	N	200	200	200	200	200	200
research	Pearson Correlation	.90	1.00	.06	.28	.05	.92
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000		.411	.000	.471	.000
	N	200	200	200	200	200	200
citations	Pearson Correlation	.02	.06	1.00	-.30	.22	.39
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.768	.411		.000	.001	.000
	N	200	200	200	200	200	200
industry	Pearson Correlation	.23	.28	-.30	1.00	-.10	.17
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.001	.000	.000		.149	.014
	N	200	200	200	200	200	200
international	Pearson Correlation	-.11	.05	.22	-.10	1.00	.17
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.114	.471	.001	.149		.017
	N	200	200	200	200	200	200
weightedtotal	Pearson Correlation	.89	.92	.39	.17	.17	1.00
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000	.000	.000	.014	.017
	N	200	200	200	200	200	200