Unbiased one-dimensional university ranking – application-based preference ordering

Abstract

Our main goal is to produce a ranking technique which overcomes shortcomings of the numerous university rankings published. We propose a ranking method that provides a one-dimensional preference list of universities which is solely based on the partial rankings of applicants. Our ranking is free of subjective weights and uncomparable dimensions.

Keywords:

• university ranking
• preference ordering
• incomplete pairwise comparison
• genetic algorithms
• rank aggregation

JEL:

• I23
• Z18

AMS:

• 62F07
• 97B40

Acknowledgements

This paper was made under the project TÁMOP-4.2.2/B-10/1-2010-0025. The authors are grateful to András Farkas for the elaborate explanation of linear ordering methods and several hints which proved to be essential in this work. Sincere thanks go to the team of FELVI.hu / Educatio Kht. for their help and authorization of usage of application data. We are indebted to several faculty members of University of Pannonia for their helpful comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Universities are only a subset, albeit the by far most important one of the set of HE institutions. Literature usually speaks of ‘university ranking lists’ which is, in a strict sense of the term, inaccurate. The reason is that it does not cover other higher education institutions such as colleges or some high-level schools with the intellectual capacity of a university but without such a name (e.g. the London School of Economics). To be fair however, we must note that (1) it is very rare that colleges figure on international HE ranking lists; and (2) special schools enjoying university reputation are usually considered as such also by the authors of ranking lists. This is why we, although with some reluctance, also refer to ‘university ranking lists’ in this study.

2. On this diversity, see, for example, [20,17].

3. Hungary had traditionally five-year long university studies in most of the cases till the adaptation of the Bologna 3+2 system.