Implications of the THE African Pilot Ranking

The most interesting thing about THE's experimental African ranking is the use of fractionalised counting of citations. This means that the total number of citations is divided by the number of institutions contributing to a publication. Previously, the method used in THE rankings was to assign the total citations of a paper to all of the institutions that contributed just as though each one had been the only contributor. This has produced some very questionable results with universities that were excellent but very specialised or just generally unproductive  scoring remarkably high scores for citations. Panjab university, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa, Federico Santa Maria Technical University and Moscow State Engineering Physics Institute have all had moments of glory in the THE rankings because of  citation scores that were dramatically higher than their scores for research or any other indicator or group of indicators.

The new method, if applied generally, is likely to see a significant reduction in the scores given to such universities. We can estimate what might happen by looking at the four universities that are included in both the African pilot ranking and last year's world rankings,  Cape Town, Witwatersrand, Stellenbosch and Universite Marrakesh Cadi Ayyad, Morocco.

In the world rankings these universities received scores of 86.6, 67.3, 45.6 and 83 respectively. The score of 83 for Universite Cadi Ayyad resulted very largely from its contributions to several publications from the Large Hadron Collider project, one of which has been cited over 2,000 times, a low overall output of papers and the "regional modification" that gave a big boost to low scoring countries. The scores for the three South African universities reflected a larger total output and citations over a broad range of disciplines.

In the African pilot ranking the scores for citations were Cape Town 90.90, Witwatersrand 99.76, Stellenbosch 95.48 and Cadi Ayyad 78.61. The high scores for the South African institutions reflect a much lower mean score than in the world rankings. 

The fall in Cadi Ayyad's citation score from 3.6 points below Cape Town to 21.3 below and its falling behind Stellenbosch and Witwatersrand presumably reflect the impact of fractionalised counting.

This suggests that if fractionalised counting is used in the coming World University Rankings many small or specialised institutions will suffer and there will be a lot of reshuffling. 

The Top University in Africa is ...

... the University of Cape Town. What a surprise!

Times Higher Education (THE) has produced another "snapshot" ranking. This one is a list of 15 African universities ranked according to "research influence", that is the number of citations per paper normalised by field and year. It seems that a larger list will be published at a THE summit at the university of Johannesburg scheduled for the end of this month. Then, apparently, there will be discussions about full rankings with a broad range of indicators.

This is a smart move. Apart from diluting the impact of the QS BRICS rankings, this table puts the summit host in the top ten and gets attention from around the continent with three places in the north, two in the west and two in the east in the top fifteen.

Here is the top 15:

1.   University of Cape Town, South Africa
2.   University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
3.   Makerere University, Uganda
4.   Stellenbosch University, South Africa
5.   University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa
6.   University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria
7.   University of the Western Cape, South Africa
8.   University of Nairobi, Kenya
9.    University of Johannesburg, South Africa
10.  Universite Cadi Ayyad, Morrocco
11.  University of Pretoria, South Africa
12.  University of Ghana
13.  University of South Africa
14.  Suez Canal University, Egypt
15.  Universite Hassan II, Morrocco.

This is, of course, just one indicator but even so there will be a few academic eyebrows rising around the continent. Makerere has a good national and regional reputation but does it have more research influence than all but two South African universities?

How come Suez Canal University is there but not Cairo University or the American University in Cairo? And I am sure that in Nigeria there will be a lot of smirking around Ahmadu Bello and Ibadan Universities about Port Harcourt in sixth place.

One very good thing about this "experimental and preliminary ranking" is that THE and data provider Scopus are now using fractionalised counting of citations, so that if 100 universities contribute to a publication they each get credit for one hundredth of the citations.

That has not stopped Makerere and Port Harcourt from getting a boost, perhaps too much of a boost, for taking part in a huge multinational medical study but it has reduced the distortions that this indicator can cause.

So, for once, well done THE!... Now, what about taking a look at secondary affiliations?

Is this really happening?

If this continues France will be the least intelligent country in the world in a century.

Drawing straight lines on graphs and getting excited about tiny samples can be dangerous. Even so, this is a little frightening.

James Thompson's blog notes a study by Edward Dutton and Richard Lynn that suggests that the French national average IQ declined by nearly 4 points in a decade. The sample size was only 79 so we should not start panicking too much until there are a few more studies. It will be interesting to see if this one is replicated.

Now the British Academy Sees a Problem

Yesterday I referred to the poor numeracy skills of British (England and Northern Ireland) tertiary graduates reported by the OECD.

Now the British Academy has had its say. It reports that the performance of British school pupils is mediocre and that many undergraduate students are weak in statistics.

But it looks like middling (compared to the OECD average) secondary school students become almost rock bottom (in the OECD) tertiary graduates. Could it be that British universities are actually subtracting relative value from their students?

The Academy notes:

Our school pupils tend to be ranked only in the middle of developed nations in mathematics. Our undergraduates embark on degree courses with varying, and often weak, fluency in statistics. And, in the workplace, demand for more advanced quantitative skills has risen sharply in the past two decades.

Perhaps this has something to do with relatively high graduation rates at British universities so that mediocre students with weak numeracy skills will be recorded as tertiary graduates while their counterparts in most of the OECD will drop out and remain classified as secondary graduate. Even if that were the case the mediocrity of secondary students and tertiary graduates would still need to be addressed.

The Academy proposes a strategy that includes improving the quality of quantitative skills teaching, reviewing school curricula and addressing the early dropping of maths by secondary school students.

I suspect that that will be insufficient.

Today India, Tomorrow Japan, Then ....

The ranking businesses are extending their global tentacles. Times Higher Education has produced a "snapshot" MENA ranking that produced interesting results -- Texas A&M University Qatar top for research impact -- and will be announcing their world rankings from Melbourne.

Meanwhile, QS will be in India next week to reveal their latest BRICS rankings and has been getting attention in new places for its subject rankings that get to places other rankings won't go.

With QS getting more international, it is no surprise to hear that Mitsui & Co, Ltd, has purchased shares in QS:

'Nunzio Quacquarelli, CEO of QS said the investment from Mutsui “can especially support our development in Asia” adding, “we were seeking and have found a likeminded company which shares our long term vision” '.

 This is not the first sign of Mitsui's interest in tertiary education:

'Last year the company also invested $5m in Synergis Education, an education company specialising in online and on the ground adult learner programmes.
“We aim to use our experience in the online education field to create new services,” said Takeshi Akutsu, GM of Mitsui Service Business Division in a statement.
“At the same time, through this business we will help to nurture the global human resources needed by the global economy.” '

I wonder if QS will try and start ranking online courses.next.

What's the Problem with U-Multirank and AHELO?

In a recent post, I discussed the contrast between the poor skills of young people in the UK (strictly speaking Northern Ireland and England) and the high regard in which  British universities are held by the brand name rankers.

There is a piece of data in the skills report from the OECD that is interesting in this respect. Figure 2.2 shows the average numeracy skills of new graduates (age 16-29, 2012). It is depressing reading. The data for tertiary graduates shows that only Italy does worse than the UK and Ireland is either the same or almost the same.The US is very slightly ahead. The top scorers are Austria, Flanders and the Czech Republic.

Something that should have everybody running around doing research and forming  committees is that British tertiary graduates are only very slightly better than most European secondary graduates and slightly better than South Koreans with less than an upper secondary qualification.

It is possible, indeed quite probable, that British tertiary graduates do better on verbal skills and likely that they could conduct themselves well in interviews. Perhaps also, it is places like the University of East London and Bolton University that are dragging down the British average. But this dramatically poor performance is such a glaring contrast to the preening self satisfaction of the higher education establishment that some discussion at least is called for.

We may be seeing an explanation for the reluctance of the Russell Group and its orbiters and the Ivy League to cooperate with U-Multirank and their disdain for the AHELO project that is in marked contrast with their support for the trusted and prestigious THE rankings. They are quite happy to be assessed on reputation, resources, income and citations but comparison with the cognitive skills of graduates from the upstarts of East Asia and perhaps Eastern and Central Europe  is something to be avoided.

Why Russia Might Rise Fairly Quickly in the Rankings After Falling a Bit

An article  by Alex Usher in Higher Education in Russia and Beyond, reprinted in University World News, suggests five structural reasons why Russian universities will not rise very quickly in the global rankings. These are:

• the concentration of resources in academies rather than universities

• excessive specialisation among existing universities

• a shortage of researchers  caused by the economic crisis of the nineties

• excessive bureaucratic control over research projects

• limited fluency in English.

Over the next couple of years things might even get a bit worse. QS are considering introducing a sensible form of field normalisation, just for the five main subject groups. This might not happen since they are well aware of the further advantages this will give to English speaking universities, especially Oxbridge and places like Yale and Princeton, that are strong in the humanities and social sciences. But if it did it would not be good for Russian universities. Meanwhile, THE has spoken about doing something about hugely cited multi-authored physics papers and that could drastically affect institutions like MEPhI.

But after that, there are special features in the QS and THE world rankings that could be exploited by Russian universities. 

Russia is surrounded by former Soviet countries where Russian is widely used and which could provide large numbers of international research collaborators, an indicator in the THE rankings, and could be a source of international students and faculty, indicators in the THE and QS rankings and a source of respondents to the THE and QS academic surveys.

Russia might also consider tapping the Chinese supply of bright students for STEM subjects. It is likely that the red bourgeoisie will start wondering about the wisdom of sending their heirs to universities that give academic credit for things like walking around with a mattress or  not shaving armpit hair and think about a degree in engineering from Moscow State or MEPhI.

Russian universities also appear to have a strong bias towards applied sciences and vocational training that should, if marketed properly, produce high scores in the QS employer survey and the THE Industry Income: Innovation indicator.

Italy and France Accept Gaokao Scores

What will happen when universities find gaokao is a better predictor of academic ability than A levels or SAT?

This is from YIBADA. 

"Up to 1,000 universities in France, Italy, and other 14 popular overseas destinations for Chinese applicants are now accepting national college entrance test scores or "gaokao" scores as admission criteria, according to a report published on Monday by MyOffer, a London-based online student placement portal.
The findings reflect the growing international recognition for China's national college entrance tests despite lagging behind other exams.
MyOffer, which helps international students with university placements, overseas internships and career development, released the study as this year's "gaokao" scores were announced in several parts of China.
Earlier reports claimed that "gaokao" test results were accepted in 20 countries and regions, but MyOffer's study has by far the most detailed findings available."

Today, Cuba and China, Tomorrow North Korea?

Another sign of the growing desperation of American colleges to find international students to take the courses American students just won't take is the four Cuban students who will take the TOEFL in Havana a week from now. There are plans for the GRE to be offered in Cuba in October.

The Implications of the University of San Francisco Accepting Gaokao scores.

The University of San Francisco has announced that it will admit a limited number of students on the basis of their scores on the Gaokao, the rigorous Chinese national university entrance exam, plus an interview and English language test in Beijing. The candidates will be spared the necessity of  taking TOEFL prep courses and flying to Hong Kong or Singapore for the SAT test.
 
American and British universities are running out of students capable of taking tertiary education courses. Average cognitive skills of local students are stagnant or declining, which explains the obsession of universities with finding students from overseas to bring in revenue and balance the books. China appears to have a large number of students capable of high achievement in numeracy-based fields.
 
What would happen if American universities found that Gaokao scores were more predictive of academic success than a dumbed down SAT? What if the English language component turned out to be just as good a measure of language proficiency as IELTS or TOEFL? The consequence might be that the Gaokao could become the normal route for admission to universities outside China.

And looking ahead several decades, what would happen if the Gaokao was offered in languages other than Chinese with test centres being set up outside China?

Which is the Real Fraud?

The Australian via Inside higher Ed has an article by Kylar Loussikian about a shadowy organisation apparently based in Colchester, England, that supplies ghostwritten academic essays. Australian universities, and maybe others, are getting very concerned about the racket. 

'The most common issue, ghostwritten essays, represents a “wicked problem,” said John Shields, deputy dean of the University of Sydney’s business school. “It’s deep and embedded and it’s hard to catch and kill,” he said. “In one sense, ghostwriting has emerged as an area of key concern in academic honesty because many universities are using a first-line defense in terms of [text matching software], and the simple plagiarism approach being detectable has forced those who, for whatever reason, choose to engage in dishonest conduct, to go one level deeper.” '

No doubt there will be a lot of finger pointing and tongue wagging. But are companies like these the real frauds? When millions of students are unable to do the work in courses for which they have been selected shouldn't we conclude that the entire admission process is flawed?

Why are there people capable of turning out essays and papers at a few hours or days notice not employed in universities? Doesn't this suggest that that there is a problem with the recruitment process?

Meanwhile the ghost writing virus seems to be spreading to graduate and faculty research. In the last few weeks I have received messages from Gulf Dissertation Online, which has "expertly helped and consulted PhD Professors, Lecturers and Scholars with their Thesis, Dissertations and Research Papers for over 12 Years" and Publish Pedia, which "is now offering a unique opportunity to Scholars and Professors who are pursuing their first publication ISI indexed journal or due to insufficient time not able to follow up on their new papers for publication to high impact factor top tier journals keeping the mandatory guidelines for ISI journal approved by the University"

The British Paradox Again

We have been told many times before that British universities are punching above their weight and are outperforming their international counterparts. Year after year they do extremely well in the QS and THE world rankings although perhaps not as well in the Shanghai ARWU.

This excellent performance is in glaring contrast to the well documented decline in the cognitive skills of young people in the United Kingdom. A recent publication from the OECD on youth, skills and employability  show that the proportion of 16-39 olds in the UK (actually England and Northern Ireland) with low literacy skills was well above the OECD average and slightly above the United States. Only Spain and Italy did worse. Not unexpectedly, the top performers here were Japan, Korea and Finland.

What is even more frightening is that the UK is very distinctive in that the proportion of 16-29 olds with poor literacy skills is lower than that of 30-54 years. In every other country except Japan, where literacy is very high among both groups,  and Norway, literacy has risen among the younger generation.

For numeracy skills of 16-29 year olds, the UK is again well below the OECD average. The share of young people with limited numeracy is higher than any other country except Italy and the US. Again there is a decline from the 30-54 year olds.

The OECD has also published data on problem solving abilities in technology-rich environments. This time the UK, like every country assessed, has improved over time but still is behind everyone else except  the US, Ireland and Poland.

So how can British students be so bad at literacy, numeracy and problem solving when the universities are, according to international rankers, so brilliant?

Some suggestions.

Perhaps, the rankings are biased towards British universities.

Perhaps, British higher education is highly differentiated with a few outstanding institutions that get high scores in the global league tables and a mass of others that cannot even squeeze into the 400s or 500s or do not even try.

Perhaps, it is just a question of time and in the next few years British universities will collapse under the weight of thousands of students with low cognitive skills who must be admitted to keep revenues flowing.

Why is Bogazici University considered so great in Turkey although it actually is at 400th position in the QS world rankings?

Another question from Quora.

The answer is that the QS rankings favour universities with an established reputation in those countries that are interested in rankings, those that have extensive international linkages, those with a lot of faculty and those with strengths in medical research.

In contrast, the Times Higher Education  (THE) rankings favour those powered by hadron driven citations and with the good fortune to be located in countries where most universities produce few citations.

What will happen if THE does reform its citations indicator?

Is The QS Computer Scence Ranking Accurate?

Ben Zhao, Professor at UC Santa Barbara, doesn't think so.

"There's a bunch of rankings, US News, Shanghai, US National Research Council, QS.  Of all of these, I would probably say that QS is one of the least useful. Why do I say that? I get SPAMMED on multiple email addresses to respond to a survey on QS university rankings.  I don't respond, and they just send more mail.  This is NOT the behavior of a reputable organization trying to gather a legitimate view of universities and their research quality.   ... "

I wouldn't disagree with him about the QS subject rankings, which outside the ranks of the world elite are based on very small samples of employers and academics and small numbers of citations. But it might be unfair to complain about being spammed all the time. This is probably happening because many universities are submitting his name to QS for the academic opinion survey.

As Oscar Wilde probably would have said the only thing worse than being spammed is not being spammed.

What do Indian Scientists do on Their Holidays?

The Indian Express has an interesting interview with the Vice-Chancellor of Panjab University, which Times Higher Education (THE), but nobody else, considers to be the best or second best university in India,  a feat achieved by an outstanding score for citations.

Here is an extract:

"Did the four-year period, 2010-2014, counted for the Times ranking include old research papers as well?Yes. It is not about papers that came out in this period but also the papers in which PU figures and which have a high citation. It is a mix of so many things. God particle came up in 2012. So, all those papers are being cited multiple times. Every theorist is cited. So, PU was already doing well, and discovery of God particle made it even better. When there was a lull and Fermilab was closed down for a while, and they were re-building CERN, PU and TIFR went on and joined the groups in B-factory in Japan.
The thing is that you have a job in the university, you have a job for life, you can decide to sleep, still you will get the salary. These professors at PU, or those at IIT-Guwahati, TIFR people, they are conscious that their productivity should not suffer. They should continuously be valued as a member of these collaborations. So, they keep working. So, when there is a holiday, when [other] people spend time here and there,what do High energy physicists do? Class khatam hoti hai. The next day they take a flight, and go to CERN or Chicago, and there they work hard. You are actually trying to make up for the time you could not do anything because you were doing teaching. That is how international faculty values them also, and they are continuously being included."

So, the Vice-Chancellor is aware that it is the CERN project that is cause of PU's ranking success. It will be interesting to see what happens if THE does bite the unpleasant tasting bullet and introduce fractionated counting of citations.

But if PU and other Indian institutions continue to improve, even if there is a (temporary?) dip in the THE rankings, then the key to that success may be here. Indian scientists can draw  a salary while sleeping if they want but they can also go to Switzerland and discover the fundamental particles of the universe if so inclined. Increasingly, western scientists are apparently expected to spend their days and nights filling out forms, applying for grants, writing teaching philosophies, attending sexual harassment seminars, making safe spaces all over the place, undergoing diversity sensitivity training and so on and so on.

University Ranking Challenge: Your starter for 5,154

Phil Baty, editor of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, has indicated that the publication of a paper from the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider project is a challenge for rankers.

The paper in question has a total of 5,154 authors, if that is the right word, with sole or primary affiliation to 344 institutions. Of those authors 104 have a secondary affiliation. One is deceased. Under THE's current methodology every institution contributing to the paper will get credit for all the citations that the paper will receive, which is very likely to run into the thousands.

For the elite universities  participating in these projects a few thousand citations will make little or no difference. But for for a small specialised institution or a large one that does little research, those citations spread out over a few hundred papers could make a big difference.

In last year's rankings places like Florida Institute of Technology, Universite Marrakesh Cadi Ayyad, Morroco, Federico Santa Maria Technical University, Chile, Bogazici University, Turkey, got implausibly high scores for citations that were were well ahead of those for the other criteria.

The paper in question does set a record for the number of contributors although the challenge is not particularly new.

At a seminar in Moscow earlier this year, Baty suggested that THE, now independent of Thomson Reuters, was considering using fractionated counting, dividing all the citations among the contributing institutions.

This would be an excellent idea and should be technically quite feasible since CWTS at Leiden University use it as their default option.

But there would be a a price to pay. The current methodology allows THE to boast that it has found a way of uncovering hitherto unnoticed pockets of excellence. It is also a selling point in THE's imperial designs of expanding into regions where there has so far been little interest in ranking, Russia, the Middle East, Africa, the BRICS. A few universities in those regions could make a splash in the rankings if they recruited, even as an adjunct, a researcher working on the LHC project.

It would be most welcome if THE does start using fractionated counting in its citation indication. Also welcome would be some other changes: not counting self-citation, reducing the weighting for the indicator, including several different methods of evaluating research impact or quality, and, especially important, getting rid of the "regional modification" that awards a bonus for being located in a low scoring country.

An Experiment Using LinkedIn Data to Rank Arab Universities

University World News recently published an article by Rahul Choudaha suggesting that LinkedIn is the future of global rankings. At the moment that sounds a bit exaggerated and LinkedIn in its present form may be gone in a decade but he could be on to something.

Leaving Europe, North America and East Asia aside, the reliability of institutional data is very low and that makes serious evaluation of graduate outcomes, staff quality, income, teaching resources and so on extremely difficult.

This problem is especially acute for the Middle East and North Africa region where there appears to be a big demand for university rankings but little accurate information. The consequence has been some highly implausible results in the rankings attempted so far. Last year THE produced a "snapshot"of a ranking indicator which put Texas A&M Qatar as the top university for research impact.and QS's pilot rankings have the American University of Sharjah in joint first place for academic reputation, Al-Nahrain University top for faculty student ratio and Khalifa University top for papers per faculty.

So, here is a list of Arab universities ordered by the number of students or professionals putting them on the Decision Board, indicating an interest in attending Counting was done on the 14th of May.

If this approximates to reputation among students and the public then it seems that Egyptian universities have been undervalued n previous ranking exercises.

Rank	University	Country	Interested in attending
1	Helwan University	Egypt	422
2	American University in Cairo	Egypt	394
3	Arab Academy of Science, Technology and Maritime Transport	Egypt	359
4	Cairo University	Egypt	353
5	Ain Shams University	Egypt	245
6	Alexandria University	Egypt	230
7	King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals	Saudi Arabia	211
8	American University of Beirut	Lebanon	193
9	École Nationale Polytechnique d'Alger	Algeria	184
10	King Saud University	Saudi Arabia	138
11	Lebanese American University	Lebanon	133
12	American University in Dubai	UAE	131
13	Qatar University	Qatar	102
14	American University of Sharjah	UAE	91
15	King Abdullah University of Science and Technology	Saudi Arabia	85
16=	Al Azhar University	Egypt	78
16=	University of Dubai	UAE	78
18	Damascus University	Syria	73
19	University of Dammam	Saudi Arabia	70
20=	Mansoura Univerdity	Egypt	68
20=	Houari Boumediene University of Science and Technology	Algeria	68
22	UAE University	UAE	62
23	Higher Colleges of Technology	UAE	58
24=	Tanta University	Egypt	51
24=	German University in Cairo	Egypt	51
26	Zagazig University	Egypt	50
27=	Suez Canal University	Egypt	43
27=	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia	43
27=	Umm Al-Qura University	Saudi Arabia	43
30=	Abu Dhabi UNiversity	UAE	33
30=	Ajman University of Science & Technology	UAE	33
32	Assiut Universit	Egypt	32
33	Université Mentouri de Constantine	Algeria	27
34	Université Libanaise	Lebanon	26
35	Al-Imam Mohamed Ibn Saud Islamic University	Saudi Arabia	23
36	Université Saad Dahlab Blida	Algeria	22
37	Prince Sultan University	Saudi Arabia	21
38=	King Faisal University	Saudi Arabia	20
38=	Université Mouloud Mammeri de Tizi Ouzo	Algeria	20
40	Université Badji Mokhtar de Annaba	Algeria	19
41	Khalifa University	UAE	19
42=	Université de Batna	Algeria	18
42=	Université Cadi Ayyad Marrakech	Morocco	18
44=	King Khalid University	Saudi Arabia	17
44=	Sanaa University	Yemen	17
46	University of Bejaia	Jordan	16
47=	Zayed University	UAE	14
47=	Université Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah	Morocco	14
49=	Masdar Intiute of Science and Technology	UAE	13
49=	Université d'Oran	Algeria	13
51=	Yarmouk University	Jordan	12
51=	Universite de Tunis El Manar	Tunisia	12
53=	Texas A&M Qatar	Qater	11
53=	University of Sharjah	UAE	11
53=	Minia University	Egypt	11
53=	University of Tunis	Tunisia	11
53=	Universite de Monastir	Tunisia	11
58=	University of Jordan	Jordan	10
58=	Benha University	Egypt	10
58=	University of Bahrain	Bahrain	10
61	Taif University	Saudi Arabia	0
62	Kuwait University	Kuwait	0
63	University of Baghdad	Iraq	0
64	University of Khartoum	Sudan	0
65	Jordan University of Science and Technology	Jordan	0
66	Mosul University	Iraq	0
67	Qassim University	Saudi Arabia	0
68	Taibah University	Saudi Arabia	0
69	Hashemite University	Jordan	0
70	Université Abou Bekr Belkaid Tlemcen	Algeria	0
71	Al Balqa Applied University	Algeria	0
72	Babylon University	Iraq	0
73	South Valley University	Egypt	0
74	Meoufia University	Egypt	0
75	Fayoum University	Egypt	0
76	Sohag University	Egypt	0
77	Beni-Suef University	Egypt	0
78	Jazan University	Saudi Arabia	0
79	Universite de Sfax	Tunisia	0
80	Al Nahrain University	Iraq	0
81	University of Basrah	Iraq	0
82	King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences	Saudi Arabia	0
83	Université Mohammed V Agdal	Morocco	0
84	Alfaisal University	Saudi Arabia	0
85	Arabian Gulf University	Bahrain	0
86=	Petroleum Institute Abu Dhabi	UAE	0
86=	National Engineering School of Sfax	Tunisia	0
88	Mutah University	Jordan	0
89	Kafrelsheikh University	Egypt	0
90	Université de Carthage (7 de Novembre)	Tunisia	0
91	University of Balamand	Lebanon	0
92	Beirut Arab University	Lebanon	0
93	Université Hassan II Mohammadia	Morocco	0
94	Universite de Sousse	Tunisia	0
95	Université Abdelmalek Essaadi	Morocco	0
96	Petra University	Jordan	0
97	Djillali Liabes University	Algeria	0
98	Université Ferhat Abbas Setif	Algeria	0
99	Princess Sumaya University for Technology	Jordan	0
100	Université de la Manouba	Tunisia	0
101	Université Ibn Tofail Kénitra	Morocco	0
102	Université Saint Joseph de Beyrouth	Lebanon	0
103	Université de Gabes	Tunisia	0
104	Université Mohammed Premier Oujda	Morocco	0
105	Mohamed Boudiaf University of Science and Technology	Algeria	0
106	Sultan Qaboos University	Oman	0

How to improve your total Contribution in the academic caldener.

I have received several invitations over the last few months to let a team of consultants write up my research and get me into an ISI or Scopus journal. The most recent was from something called Prime Journal Consultants. It is hard to believe that anyone could be so naive as to pay money to someone who writes so badly but who knows? Maybe Chris Olsen has got a doctorate now.

Or maybe standards at Scopus and Thomson Reuters journals are not what they used to be.

Anyway, here is the first part of the message.

"The Most valuable part of your research is the data and study that you have already conducted, its time now to use the study and with our expert assistance create a complete research paper out of it and get it published to the highest impact factor ISI or Scopus Indexed journals to earn Recognition and Promotion.

The Contribution of Research Article Publishing Towards your Promotion
Publication is both a measure of a scholar’s knowledge and also a benchmark for academic success. The minimum percentage for promotion in terms of Research Publication is at least 35-40% of your total Contribution in the academic caldener.


Common Misconception About ISI publishing -Book A Dedicated Consultant Today
ISI Publishing is a time consuming process, The Genuine ISI journals would take time after getting you through rigorous revisions and edits. That is where our Dedicated Consultants Come in to assist you take you through theentire steps to get you an ISI acceptance."

The March of Pseudoscience Stumbles a BIt

Pseudoscience continues to thrive in the West. Although -- I think -- no longer offered by universities, homeopathy is still viewed with favour by many in the British establishment, including the Prince of Wales, and has received official recognition in Canada.

Meanwhile in Malaysia Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) has produced an anti-hysteria kit consisting of things like chopsticks,  lime, salt, vinegar and pepper spray, which will repel evil spirits. The kit sells for Ringgit 8,750, which includes training and technical support

The Malaysian religious authorities have been more sceptical than the British royal family and treated the kits with derision. UMP has replied by claiming the kit was based on scientific research, although it has not said where the research was published

The Geography of Excellence: the Importance of Weighting

So finally, the 2015 QS subject rankings were published. It seems that the first attempt was postponed when the original methodology produced implausible fluctuations, probably resulting from the volatility that is inevitable when there are a small number of data points -- citations and survey responses -- outside the top 50 for certain subjects.

QS have done some tweaking, some of it aimed at smoothing out the fluctuations in the responses to their academic and employer surveys.

These rankings look at bit different from the World University Rankings. Cambridge has the most top ten placings (31), followed by Oxford and Stanford (29 each), Harvard (28), Berkeley (26) and MIT (16).

But in the world rankings MIT is in first place, Cambridge second, Imperial College London third, Harvard fourth and Oxford and University College London joint fifth.

The subject rankings use two indicators from the world, the academic survey and the employer survey but not internationalisation, student faculty ratio and citations per faculty. They add two indicators, citations per paper and h-index.

The result is that the London colleges do less well in the subject rankings since they do not benefit from their large numbers of international students and faculty. Caltech, Princeton and Yale also do relatively badly probably because the new rankings do not take account of their low faculty student faculty ratios.

The lesson of this is that if weighting is not everything, it is definitely very important.

Below is a list of universities ordered by the number of top five placings. There are signs of the Asian advance --  Peking, Hong Kong and the National University of Singapore -- but it is an East Asian advance.

Europe is there too but it is Cold Europe -- Switzerland, Netherlands and Sweden -- not the Mediterranean.

Rank	University	Country	Number of Top Five Places
1	Harvard	USA	26
2	Cambridge	UK	20
3	Oxford	UK	18
4	Stanford	USA	17
5=	MIT	USA	16
5=	UC Berkeley	USA	16
7	London School of Economics	UK	7
8=	University College London	UK	3
8=	ETH Zurich	Switzerland	3
10=	New York University	USA	2
10=	Yale	USA	2
10=	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands	2
10=	National University of Singapore	Singapore	2
10=	UC Los Angeles	USA	2
10=	UC Davis	USA	2
10=	Cornell	USA	2
10=	Wisconsin - Madison	USA	2
10-	Michigan	USA	2
10=	Imperial College London	UK	2
20=	Wagenginen	Netherlands	1
20=	University of Southern California	USA	1
20=	Pratt Institute, New York	USA	1
20=	Rhode Island School of Design	USA	1
20=	Parsons: the New School for Design	USA	1
20=	Royal College of Arts London	UK	1
20=	Melbourne	Australia	1
20=	Texas-Austin	USA	1
20=	Sciences Po	France	1
20=	Princeton	USA	1
20=	Yale	USA	1
20=	Chicago	USA	1
20=	Manchester	UK	1
20=	University of Pennsylvania	USA	1
20=	Durham	UK	1
20=	INSEAD	France	1
20=	London Business School	UK	1
20=	Northwestern	USA	1
20=	Utrecht	Netherlands	1
20=	Guelph	Canada	1
20=	Royal Veterinary College London	UK	1
20=	UC San Francisco	USA	1
20=	Johns  Hopkins	USA	1
20=	KU Leuven	USA	1
20=	Gothenburg	Sweden	1
20=	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	1
20=	Karolinska Institute	Sweden	1
20=	Sussex	UK	1
20=	Carnegie Mellon University	USA	1
20=	Rutgers	USA	1
20=	Pittsburgh	USA	1
20=	Peking	China	1
20=	Purdue	USA	1
20=	Georgia Institute ofTechnology	USA	1
20=	Edinburgh	UK	1

Are all subjects the same?

University rankers seem to be moving towards the field  normalization of citations data. In 2010 Times Higher Education and Thomson Reuters started using it for their world rankings. The scores for citations did not reflect the absolute number of citations or even citations per paper or per faculty but citations per paper in relation to the world average for 250 fields. Normalisation by year of citation was added to the process. I have heard that QS is considering normalization by five subject groups. Meanwhile THE has switched to Scopus as a data source and they apparently have 300 fields.

This is justified by the claim that it is unfair that an outstanding paper in history or philosophy should be given the same value as a mediocre one in medicine or physics, something that could happen if only the number of citations were counted.  Perhaps, but that assumes that all subjects are equal even if society values them differently and provides more money for some fields and even if they require different levels of cognitive ability.

The website The Tab provides evidence from the Complete Universities Guide (still searching for the original data) that in the UK there are substantial differences in the grades required by universities for various subjects.

The five most difficult subjects measured by points for grades (Advanced level A = 120) are:

Medicine
Dentistry
Physics
Chemical Engineering
Classics.

The least difficult are:

Business and Management
Accounting and Finance
Education
American Studies
Sociology.

This is for undergraduate education in the UK. Looking at future majors of GRE test takers in the US we find something similar Philosophers, physicists and economists are very much brighter than future accountants, social workers, education specialists and public administrators. Engineers perform poorly for verbal aptitude but better for mathematical aptitude. See here and here.

Does it make sense that the average paper in a demanding discipline like physics or philosophy should be treated as exactly the same as the average paper in education or sociology?

They'll be doing Gourmet Nights next

I have just received an invitation for the Dublin Young Universities Summit on the 29th of this month. It is remarkably restrained: 'prestigious' appears' only three times, 'exclusive' four times and 'distinguished" once.


"...EXCLUSIVE a prestigious networking dinner and world class speakers ... A Rankings masterclass with Phil Baty ..."

"We would be honoured if you would register to attend this prestigious event..."

"Distinguished speakers include..."

"In addition, the event will feature:

• Prestigious networking dinner 
• An exclusive rankings masterclass with Mr Phil Baty"

"Because of the summit’s exclusive nature, places are strictly limited..."

"Your ticket will include*:

• Prestigious welcome dinner
• An exclusive rankings masterclass with Mr Phil Baty, editor at large and rankings editor, THE
• World-class speakers
• 2 x Networking lunches
• Scheduled transfers between the official hotel and the university venues
• Closing networking drinks reception"

MENA universities and Google Scholar Results

For reference purposes only, here are the Google Scholar Results (all documents) taken on April 4th for all universities included in any of the Arab Region/MENA rankings produced by US News, QS or Times Higher Education. Time period was 2010-2014.

Rank	University	Country	Google Scholar  Results
1	Cairo University	Egypt	19,100
2	King Saud University	Saudi Arabia	17,200
3	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia	15,800
4	Ain Shams University	Egypt	15,500
5	American University of Beirut	Lebanon	12,700
6	King Abdullah University of Science and Technology	Saudi Arabia	11,000
7	Alexandria University	Egypt	10,500
8	University of Jordan	Jordan	9,700
9	Al Azhar University	Egypt	9,480
10	King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals	Saudi Arabia	9,180
11	American University in Cairo	Egypt	9,080
12	Mansoura University	Egypt	8,790
13	Zagazig University	Egypt	8,410
14	Assiut University	Egypt	7,600
15	Sultan Qaboos University	Oman	7,410
16	Kuwait University	Kuwait	7,040
17	University of Baghdad	Iraq	6,960
18	University of Khartoum	Sudan	5,910
19	Qatar University	Qatar	5,430
20	Suez Canal University	Egypt	5,340
21	Tanta University	Egypt	5,030
22	University of Sharjah	UAE	5,020
23	United Arab Emirates University	UAE	4,690
24	Helwan University	Egypt	4,200
25	King Khalid University	Saudi Arabia	4,110
26	Yarmouk University	Jordan	4,100
27	Jordan University of Science and Technology	Jordan	4,040
28	Taif University	Saudi Arabia	3,530
29	Minia University	Egypt	3,500
30	Benha University	Egypt	3,400
31	American University of Sharjah	UAE	3,150
32	University of Tunis	Tunisia	3,130
33	King Faisal University	Saudi Arabia	3,090
34	University of Mosul	Iraq	2,820
35=	Qassim University	Saudi Arabia	2,770
35=	Taibah University	Saudi Arabia	2,770
37	Hashemite University	Jordan	2,650
38	Umm Al-Qura University	Saudi Arabia	2,610
39	Université Abou Bekr Belkaid Tlemcen	Algeria	2,370
40	Al Balqa' Applied University	Jordan	2,330
41	University of Babylon	Iraq	2,250
42	South Valley University	Egypt	2,240
43	Lebanese American University	Lebanon	2,170
44	Menoufia University	Egypt	2,120
45	Damascus University	Syria	2,060
46	Fayoum University	Egypt	1,970
47	University of Bahrain	Bahrain	1,940
48=	Khalifa University	UAE	1,890
48=	Sohag University	Egypt	1,890
50	Beni-Suef University	Egypt	1,770
51	Jazan University	Saudi Arabia	1,750
52	Universite de Sfax	Tunis	1,740
53	Al Nahrain University	Iraq	1,710
54	Zayed University	UAE	1,690
55	University of Basrah	Iraq	1,560
56	King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences	Saudi Arabia	1,520
57	Masdar Institute of Science and Technology	UAE	1,470
58	Université Mohammed V Agdal	Morocco	1,450
59	Université d'Oran	Algeria	1,370
60	University of Damman	Saudi Arabia	1,300
61	Universite de Tunis El Manar	Tunisia	1,270
62	German University in Cairo	Egypt	1,210
63	Alfaisal University	Saudi Arabia	1,200
64	Universite des Sciences et da la Technologie Houari Boumediene	Algeria	1,160
65	Sanaa University	Yemen	1,140
66	Université Libanaise	Lebanon	1,100
67	Arabian Gulf University	Bahrain	1,030
68	Petroleum Institute Abu Dhabi	UAE	948
69	National Engineering School of Sfax	Tunisia	872
70	Mutah University	Jordan	826
71	Kafrelsheikh University	Egypt	825
72	Université de Batna	Algeria	818
73	Universite de Monastir	Tunisia	757
74	Université de Carthage (7 de Novembre)	Tunisia	754
75	Higher Colleges of Technology	UAE	726
76	University of Balamand	Lebanon	673
77	Beirut Arab University	Lebanon	662
78	Abu Dhabi University	UAE	627
79	Université Cadi Ayyad Marrakech	Morocco	588
80	Arab Academy of Science Technology and Maritime Transport	Egypt	585
81	Université Hassan II Mohammadia	Morocco	559
82	Universite de Sousse	Tunisia	531
83	Université Mentouri de Constantine	Algeria	527
84	Université Abdelmalek Essaadi	Morocco	509
85	University of Bejaia	Jordan	508
86=	Petra University	Jordan	506
86=	Université Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah	Morocco	506
88	Prince Sultan University	Saudi Arabia	469
89	Djillali Liabes University	Algeria	464
90	Université Ferhat Abbas Setif	Algeria	462
91	University of Dubai	UAE	437
92	Université Mouloud Mammeri de Tizi Ouzo	Algeria	427
93	Princess Sumaya University for Technology	Jordan	417
94	Université de la Manouba	Tunisia	412
95	Université Ibn Tofail Kénitra	Morocco	403
96	American University in Dubai	UAE	364
97	Al-Imam Mohamed Ibn Saud Islamic University	Saudi Arabia	257
98	Université Saint Joseph de Beyrouth	Lebanon	246
99	Université de Gabes	Tunisia	208
100	Université Mohammed Premier Oujda	Morocco	193
101	École Nationale Polytechnique d'Alger	Algeria	184
102	Ajman University of Science & Technology	UAE	142
103	Texas A&M Qatar	Qatar	111
104	UST  d'Oran Mohamed Boudiaf	Algeria	107
105	Université Saad Dahlab Blida	Algeria	70
106	Université Badji Mokhtar de Annaba	Algeria	54

QS Subject Rankings out on 29th

QS have redesigned their subject ranking methodology and will release the revised results on April 29th. The modifications are:

• reintroducing regional weightings in the academic and employer surveys

• ·counting articles in all the subjects to which they are assigned

• adjusting weightings usually to increase those for citations and h- index and reducing those     for the surveys

• increasing  the minimum number of papers required for inclusion in the rankings

• extending survey samples to 5 years.

Secrecy and Mystery: New Ranking Indicators

The South China Morning Post provides an explanation why some Chinese universities may not be doing well in the global rankings.

"If you are a student of science or engineering looking for a “thrilling” exchange programme in China, this may be the right place for you. The universities on the list below enjoy high reputations in China and they all accept overseas students, but they rarely publish papers in international journals due to the sensitivity of their research, so you may not easily find their names on most world university rankings. If you visit them, don’t be misled by the peaceful and friendly atmosphere on campus. The old professor riding a dusty bike with fatherly smile and silvery hair along your way to class could be chairing the development of China’s most deadly space weapons."

If you want to know the five most secret and mysterious universities in China, go here.