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Abstract
The Times Higher Education Supplement was the first newspaper to publish an international ranking of universities in November Citation2004. This article describes the evolution of the international rankings from their origin in a limited peer review exercise through the gradual refinement of a national ranking based on, as far as possible, publicly available, verifiable, and accepted data. The author describes the methodology of the international ranking and presents the case for the integrity of commercially produced rankings, national and international, which can be as objective, robust, and transparent as initiatives from within the university community itself.
1. This article draws on a presentation to the first working group meeting for the project, “Higher Education Ranking Systems and Methodologies: How They Work, What They Do,” organized by the Institute for Higher Education Policy and the UNESCO‐European Centre for Higher Education, Washington D.C., 10–11 December, 2004.
Notes
1. This article draws on a presentation to the first working group meeting for the project, “Higher Education Ranking Systems and Methodologies: How They Work, What They Do,” organized by the Institute for Higher Education Policy and the UNESCO‐European Centre for Higher Education, Washington D.C., 10–11 December, 2004.
2. The Times Higher Education Supplement (hereafter The Times Higher) is a weekly newspaper published separately from The Times, but under the same ownership. It circulates almost exclusively among academics and senior administrators in the UK, with a total sale approaching 30,000.
3. Conducted now by the Quality Assessment Agency (www.qaa.ac.uk).
4. (a) Proportion of permanent staff; (b) Proportion of staff with contractual obligations to teach and research; (c) Research income.
5. A Research Assessment Exercise takes place every five or six years, as an instrument for the distribution of state research funding. The last was in 2002 and the next will be in 2008. Institutions are graded through peer review and allocated a score based on a simple star system from 1* to 5*+ (exemplary).
6. See the QAA website ⟨www.qaa.ac.uk⟩ for subject‐by‐subject and institution‐by‐institution reports.
7. More about this key university in China at ⟨http://www.sjtu.edu.cn/www/english/⟩.
8. Details at ⟨http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/ranking.htm⟩.
9. Erasmus Mundus is the EC student mobility scheme. See ⟨www.erasmus.ac.uk/whatis.html⟩.
10. The Times Education Supplement, November 5 Citation2004. Available online, to subscribers, at ⟨www.thes.co.uk⟩.
11. Available at ⟨www.topmba.com⟩.
12. Formerly the Institute of Scientific Information ⟨www.isinet.com⟩.
14. The survey of foreign chief executives went to 170 of the top universities around the world and drew 40 replies, while 80 of the 200 Australian deans also responded. They were all asked to rate each Australian university in comparison with foreign universities and then to weigh each of the six categories on level of importance. The chief executives and the deans placed similar emphasis on the six measures used in the study, with the quality of staff rated as the most important factor. See ⟨www.melbourneinstitute.com⟩. See, also, Clarke Citation2005.
15. The Times Higher Education Supplement, 10 December 2004. Top Science Universities – 10 December 2004. Top Engineering and IT universities – 10 December 2004. Top Arts and Humanities universities. Top Social science universities.
