Ranking

Much controversy exists about university rankings and their significance. While it seems apparent that many would be students and their parents discuss university rankings as a key factor in making a choice, it is doubtful that many U.S. households discuss the methodology behind the rankings. Yet, without knowing the mechanism behind the ranking process, and there are many, how can one know if a ranking is valid.

Every year the Center for World-Class Universities and the Institute of Higher Education of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China provide rankings for universities all over the world. They use six criteria:

1. Number of Nobel Prizes awarded staff and alumni.
2. Number of Fields Medals awarded.
3. Number of researchers cited by Thomson Scientific.
4. Number of published articles in Nature, and, in Science.
5. Number of indexed articles in the Science Citation Index.
6. Per capita performance related to university size.

Perhaps the biggest problem with this methodology is that it is based on numbers. Many universities pay handsomely to attract Nobel Prize winners and extensively published authors/researchers, however, this does not mean that these same people obtained their glory while on the teaching staff of the said university.

Photo source Kenneth Hynek