The US News & World Report's America's Best Colleges has just been published. There are no surprises at the top. Here are the top ten.
1. Princeton
2. Harvard
3. Yale
4= Columbia
4= Stanford
4= Chicago
7. MIT
8= Duke
8= University of Pennsylvania
10. Caltech
Analysis at the Washington Post indicates little movement at the top. Outside the elite there are some significant changes.
Liberal arts colleges
St. John's College, Annapolis from 123rd to 56th .
Bennington College from 122nd to 89th.
National universities
Northeastern University from 69th to 42nd.
Texas Christian University from 99th to 46th.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Sunday, September 07, 2014
Scottish Independence and the Rankings
What happens if Scotland votes yes for independence?
Forget about Trident, currency union, North Sea oil and how many crosses there will be in the Union Jack.
The really important issue (1) is what happens to Scottish and other British universities in the international university rankings.
English, Welsh and Northern Irish students and staff in Scottish universities will presumably be classified as international. Whether that happens immediately or over a few years remains to be seen. Also, if most of the Scottish population retains dual nationality, there will be a lot of quibbling over the small print in the instructions Thomson Reuters (TR) and QS send out to universities participating in the rankings. But one way or another there will be a boost for Scottish universities, at least in the short run.
There would be an immediate bonus in the international collaboration indicator in the Times Higher Education (THE) rankings.
There would also be a smaller boost for English, Welsh and Northern Irish universities as well since some Scottish students and faculty would presumably sooner or later become international.
Less certain is the effect of independence on the regional modification in the Citations: Research Impact indicator in the THE rankings. If the overall Scottish field-normalised and year-normalised citation rate is less than that of the rest of the United Kingdom then independence and separate counting would bring another bonus for Scottish universities since they would be benchmarked against a lower number. Whether the rate is in fact lower is something that TR will no doubt be keen to tell us.
Nothing would happen right away in the Shanghai rankings unless an independent Scottish government found a new way of counting university staff. That could affect the Productivity per Capita indicator.
Of course, the long term fate of Scottish education and society would depend on the policies adopted by an independent Scottish government. Alex Salmond's "plans" for currency do not inspire very much confidence, but who knows?
(1) I'm being sarcastic.
Forget about Trident, currency union, North Sea oil and how many crosses there will be in the Union Jack.
The really important issue (1) is what happens to Scottish and other British universities in the international university rankings.
English, Welsh and Northern Irish students and staff in Scottish universities will presumably be classified as international. Whether that happens immediately or over a few years remains to be seen. Also, if most of the Scottish population retains dual nationality, there will be a lot of quibbling over the small print in the instructions Thomson Reuters (TR) and QS send out to universities participating in the rankings. But one way or another there will be a boost for Scottish universities, at least in the short run.
There would be an immediate bonus in the international collaboration indicator in the Times Higher Education (THE) rankings.
There would also be a smaller boost for English, Welsh and Northern Irish universities as well since some Scottish students and faculty would presumably sooner or later become international.
Less certain is the effect of independence on the regional modification in the Citations: Research Impact indicator in the THE rankings. If the overall Scottish field-normalised and year-normalised citation rate is less than that of the rest of the United Kingdom then independence and separate counting would bring another bonus for Scottish universities since they would be benchmarked against a lower number. Whether the rate is in fact lower is something that TR will no doubt be keen to tell us.
Nothing would happen right away in the Shanghai rankings unless an independent Scottish government found a new way of counting university staff. That could affect the Productivity per Capita indicator.
Of course, the long term fate of Scottish education and society would depend on the policies adopted by an independent Scottish government. Alex Salmond's "plans" for currency do not inspire very much confidence, but who knows?
(1) I'm being sarcastic.
Friday, September 05, 2014
Problems with Green Rating
More evidence that self-submitted data for university rankings is not a good idea comes from Inside Higher Ed. An article by Ry Rivard reports that many American colleges have been submitting data that is incomplete or inconsistent for an environmental standards rating published by the Sustainable Endowments Institute.
Wednesday, September 03, 2014
Going on Twitter
As the ranking season gets under way, with America's Best Colleges, the QS world rankings, the THE world rankings and various spin-offs and alternative rankings in the pipeline, I have reactivated my twitter account at Richard Holmes @universities06.
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