ACADEMIC RANKING OF WORLD UNIVERSITIES

The 'Academic Ranking of World Universities'^[1] is compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University and includes major institutes of higher education ranked according to a formula that took into account alumni winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (10 percent), staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (20 percent), "highly-cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories" (20 percent), articles published in ''Nature'' and ''Science'' (20 percent), the Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts and Humanities Citation Index (20 percent) and the size of the institution (10 percent). The results have been cited by ''The Economist'' magazine ^[2].
The methodology is set out in an academic article by its originators C.C. Liu and Y. Cheng^[3]. Liu and Cheng explain that original purpose of doing the ranking was "to find out the gap between Chinese universities and world-class universities, particularly in terms of academic or research performance."^[4] and list numerous problems with the methodology including:

★ the proportion of indicators on teaching and services, the weight of per capita performance,

★ the type of institutions (comprehensive or specialized),

★ the language bias in publications,

★ the selection of awards and the experience of award winners.
and technical problems including:

★ the definition of institutions,

★ the attribution of publications and awards,

★ the history of institutions.
The Shanghai rankings have been criticized for placing too much emphasis on the Nobel prizewinners, as opposed to the broader impact of a university's scientific output. For example, The Times report has also been critical of the Shanghai rankings. In its 2004 report, ''THES'' questioned why the Shanghai rankings count only Nobel prizes (note that the 2003 ranking did not include Fields medalists^[5]); why the universities where prizewinners studied, some at the turn of the century before last, were credited and why universities where winners carried out their research, often at least 20 years previously, were credited rather than the institution that now benefits from their presence. Arguably, the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Ranking also has the effect of biasing the results towards the sciences for which a Nobel prize is awarded (eg there is no Nobel prize for computer science). There are three Nobel prizes for the sciences (chemistry, physics and medicine), one for the social sciences (economics), one for the arts (literature) and the Peace Prize. Universities with staff or alumni holding Fields medals for mathematics are also rewarded, but similar awards for achievement in the arts are not taken into account.
Because of its methodology the list ranks almost exclusively research universities and not liberal-arts colleges.

Contents

See also

References

See also

★ College and university rankings

References

1. Academic Ranking of World Universities, Accessed August 2007
2. The brains business, The Economist, Sep 8th 2005[1]
3. N.C. Liu and Y Cheng "Academic ranking of world universities - methodologies and problems", Higher Education in Europe, Vol. 30, No 2., 2005 and earlier in the proceedings of Meeting of the International Rankings Expert Group 2004.
4. N.C. Liu and Y Cheng "Academic ranking of world universities: FAQ",[2], 2006, Accessed 2 August 2007
5. Nian Cai LIU, Li LIU, Ying CHENG and Teng Teng WAN, Ranking methodology and weights for the 2003 ranking. [3]], Accessed August 2007