Academic Ranking of World Universities

18 October 2012

Prof. Nian Cai LIUDirector, Center for World-Class UniversitiesDean, Graduate School of EducationShanghai Jiao Tong University

Let a Thousand Flowers Blossom

• UNESCO Global Forum “Rankings and Accountability in Higher Education”, 16-17 May 2011, Paris.

• Although there are many limitations and problems, ranking is useful to a variety of stakeholders in many different ways and is becoming one of the major quality assurance tools.

• Whether universities and other stakeholders agree with rankings or not, they are clearly here to stay. The key issue then becomes how to improve rankings and wisely use rankings.

Outline

• The History

• The Methodology

• The Results

• The Future

HISTORY

Chinese Dream of WCU

• World-Class University (WCU) is a dream for generations of Chinese. It’s not only for pride, but also for the future of China.

• Since 1990s, Chinese government has launched several initiatives for research universities. The best-known one is specially designed to build WCU (985 Project).

• Many top Chinese universities have setup their strategic goals as WCU. Most of them have also set time tables for reaching the goals.

Questions About WCU

• What is the definition and criteria for a WCU?• How many WCU should be there in the world?• What are the positions of top Chinese

universities in the world?• How can Chinese universities improve

themselves to reach the goal of WCU?

(From benchmarking to ranking)

Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Find out the positions of top Chinese Universities in the world higher education system

Provide one source of information for the global comparison of universities

Academic Ranking of World Universities by Broad Subject Fields (ARWU-FIELD)

Five Broad Subject Fields• Natural Sciences and Mathematics (SCI)

• Engineering/Technology and Computer Sciences (ENG)

• Life and Agriculture Sciences (LIFE)

• Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy (MED)

• Social Sciences (SOC)

2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

Academic Ranking of World Universities by Subject Fields (ARWU-SUBJECT)

Five Subject Fields• Mathematics

• Physics

• Chemistry

• Computer Sciences

• Economics / Business

2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

METHODOLOGY

Selection of Universities

• Any university that has any Nobel Laureates, Fields Medals, Highly Cited Researchers, or papers in Nature or Science

• Universities with significant amount of papers indexed by Citation Indexes of ThomsonNumber of

universities scanned

> 2000

Number of universities actually ranked

1200

Number of universities published

Top 500Top 200Top 200

ARWU

ARWU-FIELD

ARWU-SUBJECT

Criteria and Weights of ARWU

Criteria Indicator Code Weight

Quality of Education

Alumni of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals

Alumni

10%

Quality of Faculty

Staff of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals

Award 20%

Highly cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories

HiCi 20%

Research Output

Papers published in Nature and Science*

N&S* 20%

Papers indexed in Science Citation Index-expanded and Social Science Citation Index

PUB 20%

Per CapitaPerforman

ce

Per capita academic performance of an institution

PCP 10%*: For institutions specialized in humanities and social sciences such as London School of Economics, N&S is not considered and the weight of N&S is relocated to other indicators

Definition of Indicator: Alumni

• The total number of the alumni of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals.

• Alumni are defined as those who obtain bachelor, Master's or doctoral degrees from the institution.

• Different weights are set according to the periods of obtaining degrees. The weight is 100% for alumni obtaining degrees in 2001-2010, 90% for alumni obtaining degrees in 1991-2000, and so on, and finally 10% for alumni obtaining degrees in 1911-1920.

• If a person obtains more than one degrees from an institution, the institution is considered once only.

Criteria and Weights of ARWU-FIELD

　 Alumni Award HiCi PUB TOP Fund

SCI 10% 15% 25% 25% 25% /

ENG / / 25% 25% 25% 25%

LIFE 10% 15% 25% 25% 25% /

MED 10% 15% 25% 25% 25% /

SOC 10% 15% 25% 25% 25% /

Criteria and Weights of ARWU-SUBJECT

　 Alumni Award HiCi PUB TOP

Mathematics 10% 15% 25% 25% 25%

Physics 10% 15% 25% 25% 25%

Chemistry 10% 15% 25% 25% 25%

Computer Science 10% 15% 25% 25% 25%

Economics / Business 10% 15% 25% 25% 25%

16

Main Sources of Data

Nobel laureates: http://www.nobelprize.org

Fields Medals: http://www.mathunion.org/medals/

Highly Cited Researchers: http://www.highlycited.com

Papers published in Nature and Science: http://www.webofknowledge.com

Papers indexed in SCIE and SSCI: http://www.webofknowledge.com

RESULTS

Indicator Alumni Award HiCi N&S PUB

Top 100 3.02 1.35 29.9 57.6 4300

101-200 0.44 0.11 7.2 14.2 2700

201-300 0.21 0.02 3.3 7.3 1900

301-400 0.13 0.01 2.3 3.8 1400

401-500 0.10 0.01 0.8 2.7 1200

Average Performance by ARWU Indicators

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 20120%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

57 58 58 58 59 58 57 57

35 34 34 34 32 33 34 31

6 7 7 5 6 6 6 72 2 2 3 3 3 4 5

Oceania

Asia

Europe

Americas

Top 100 Universities by Region

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 20120%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

19 21 22 20 22 22 19 24

74 71 78 80 84 84 89 88

198 196 197 190 184 187 184 182

205 207 208 210 208 204 204 202

EuropeAmericasAsiaOceaniaAfrica

Top 500 Universities by Region

150

42

3837

2221

20

20

19

1311

1110

777

665

5 4 3United States ChinaUnited Kingdom GermanyCanada JapanFrance ItalyAustralia NetherlandsSweden SpainSouth Korea SwitzerlandBelgium AustriaIsrael BrazilFinland New ZealandDenmark NorwayIreland Saudi ArabiaSouth Africa PortugalRussia SingaporeGreece PolandHungary ChileArgentina MexicoCzech IndiaIran CroatiaEgypt MalaysiaSerbia SloveniaTurkey

Top 500 Universities by Country (43)

First multi-indicator global university ranking

Transparent and stable methodology

Objective indicators only

Third-party data only

Verifiable results

ARWU Features

Reported by media in major countries

Cited by hundreds of universities

Concerned by Government officials

Referenced by policy researchers

Used by students and their parents?!

ARWU Impact

FUTURE

Updating ARWU

ARWU Top 500 annually

ARWU-FIELD Top 200 annually

ARWU-SUBJECT Top 200 annually

Improving ARWU

Including more international scientific awards- possibly one from each subject area

Including more internationally renowned scholars- plenary speakers etc.

Including more internationally renowned alumni- executives in top companies and intl. organizations

Including more types of research outputs for social sciences

- books, etc.

Diversifying ARWU

Ranking of specialized universities - medicine, engineering, etc. (classification)

Ranking by regions of special interests - Eastern Europe, South America, South Asia, etc.

Ranking emphasizing per capita performance - comparable definition and data of academic staff

Ranking considering history, budget, size, etc.

Profiling Research Universities

Building databases of world research universities

with as many indicators as possible (GRUP) Profiling and interactive analysis of world

research universities at institutional level

Benchmarking with peer research universities in the world at faculty/departmental level

Annual report of world-class universities

Contributing to Ranking Community

Theoretical research on ranking to better understand the phenomenon of ranking

Professional services through IREG involvement and conference organization

IREG Stakeholders’ Guidelines on Academic Rankings

http://www.ShanghaiRanking.com/