shanghai ranking and the - ibssc.sjtu.edu.cn · academic excellence survey or by journal impact...

Shanghai Ranking and the Performance of Chinese Institutions

Prof. Nian Cai LIU

Center for World-Class Universities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

23 October 2018

Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)

Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS)

Performance of Chinese Institutions

Final Remarks

Outline




Final Remarks

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 ones are specially designed to build WCU (985 Project and Double World-Class 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

• Definition and criteria for a WCU?

• Number of WCUs in the world?

• Positions of top Chinese universities in the world?

• How to reach the goal of WCU?

(From benchmarking to ranking)


2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010 2011 201

22013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

ARWU 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 Web of Science

Number of universities scanned

> 2000

Number of universities

ranked

1500

Number of universities published

Top 500Top 500

Candidates

ARWU Indicators & WeightsCriteria 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 Capita Performance

Per capita academic performance of an institution PCP 10%

Total 100%

ARWU Definition of Indicator: AlumniThe 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 degree from an institution, the institution is considered once only.

Top 100 Universities by Region

Top 500 Universities by Region

Top 100 Universities by Country (18)

Top 500 Universities by Country (42)

Features of ARWU

Objective indicators Third-Party data

Transparent Consistent




Final Remarks

From ARWU-SUBJECT to GRAS

20092016

20172018

ARWU-SUBJECT• Mathematics• Physics• Chemistry• Computer Science• Economics/Business

GRAS: ENG• Chemical • Civil • Electrical & Electronic • Energy Science & • Environmental Science & • Materials Science & • Mechanical

GRAS52 Subjects

GRAS54 Subjects

GRAS: 54 Subjects Ranked

GRAS Selection of Universities

To be included in a subject ranking, universities need to have a minimum number of research publications during the period of 2012-2016.

The publication threshold is different for different subjects, depending on the number of universities involved and the scale of publication in a particular subject.

Bibliometric data are collected from Web of Science and InCites. Web of Science categories are mapped to 54 academic subjects.

GRAS Indicators & Weights

Indicator Code Weight(Standard)

The number of papers authored by an institution in an Academic Subject PUB 100

Category Normalized Citation Impact from InCites database to measure average impact of papers authored by an institution in an Academic Subject

CNCI 100

The percentage of internationally collaborated papers authored by an institution in an Academic Subject

IC 20

The number of papers published in top journals of an Academic Subject TOP 100

The number of staff of an institution winning a significant award in an Academic Subject AWARD 100

GRAS Indicator Definition: TOP

TOP is the number of papers published in Top Journals in an Academic Subject for an institution during the period of 2012-2016.

Top Journals are identified through ShanghaiRanking’s Academic Excellence Survey or by Journal Impact Factor. In 2018, 123 top journals selected by the Survey are used in rankings of 41 Academic Subjects. In Computer Science & Engineering, 14 top conferences are also considered.

For Academic Subjects that do not have journals identified by the Survey, the JCR top 20% journals are used. Only papers of ‘Article’ type are considered.

NOT A REPUTATION SURVEY!

• Highly selected professors

• Nominating criteria for academic excellence rather than nominating best universities

• Respondents must agree to publish their names and affiliations

Professors Participated: 350Universities Represented: 69 Subjects Covered: 53

30 Awards in24 Subjects

The Best Ranked University in Each SubjectSubject No. 1 Country

Mathematics Princeton University USAPhysics MIT USAChemistry University of California, Berkeley USAEarth Sciences ETH Zurich SwitzerlandGeography University of Oxford UKEcology University of Oxford UKMechanical Engineering University of Cambridge UKElectrical & Electronic Engineering University of California, Berkeley USAAutomation & Control MIT USATelecommunication Engineering Tsinghua University ChinaInstruments Science & Technology Harbin Institute of Technology ChinaBiomedical Engineering Harvard University USAComputer Science & Engineering MIT USACivil Engineering Tongji University ChinaChemical Engineering MIT USAMaterials Science & Engineering MIT USANanoscience & Nanotechnology Nanyang Technological University SingaporeEnergy Science & Engineering Nanyang Technological University SingaporeEnvironmental Science & Engineering Stanford University USAWater Resources Delft University of Technology NetherlandsFood Science & Technology University of Wageningen Netherlands




Final Remarks

Top 5 Chinese Universities in ARWU

The Improvement is Remarkable

Total number of Chinese (Mainland) universities ranked in the Top 500 of ARWU increased from 8 in 2004 to 51 in 2018.

Top Chinese universities have started to appear in the Top 100 list of ARWU since 2016.

The Gap is Still Huge

The original purpose of ARWU was to find out the gap between top Chinese universities and world-class universities.

The number of Chinese universities appearing in and close to the Top 100 of ARWU is relatively small, and they are still far away from the Top 20.

Considering the population and GDP of China, the gap between top Chinese universities and world-class universities is still huge both in quantity and in quality.

The Design of ARWU Indicators

Award and Alumni as top quality indicators to differentiate World Top Universities: Top 20 universities in ARWU have about 50% share of the Award or Alumni of all universities.

HiCi and N&S as high quality indicators to differentiate World-Class Universities: Top 100 universities in ARWU have about 60% share of the HiCi or N&S of all universities.

Top 200 universities in ARWU have close to 50% publications of all the universities ranked.

Performance by ARWU Indicators

ARWU Indicator Award Alumni HiCi N&S PUB

Average of Top 20 Universities of ARWU 4.9 10.6 32 146 7800

Average of Top 100 Universities of ARWU 1.5 3.5 15 57 5800

Average of Top 5 Chinese Universities in ARWU 0.0 0.2 10 28 8900

Total of Top 5 Chinese Universities in ARWU 0.0 0.9 51 138

A Long Way to Go

Although Chinese universities have been improving

quickly in recent years and the gap between Chinese

universities and world-class universities has become

smaller and smaller, there is still a long way to go for

top Chinese universities to become fully competitive

with world-class universities.



Performance of Chinese Institutions Final Remarks

Positive Impacts of Rankings

• Driving profound transformation and reorganization of higher education systems and institutions for global competition and quality

• Stimulating governments to set strategic goals, reshape national priorities and policies, and establish excellence initiatives

• Helping institutions to Identify strengths and weaknesses, refocus institutional priorities, and improve external relations

• Informing students, their parents and other stakeholders for their choices of study and recruitment etc.

Controversial Influences of Rankings

• Possibly unbalanced distribution of resources and policy supports among various types and levels of higher education institutions

• Possibly unbalanced emphasis on research, which could undermine other missions of higher education institutions

• Possibly unbalanced focus on quick performance indicators instead of quality itself

Recommendations for Building WCU

• Establishing long-term global visions supported by strategic plans and serious actions

• Improving the quality of education, research and service, while paying attention to ranking positions and/or quick indicators

• Balancing education and research, strength and comprehensiveness of disciplines, etc.

Cautions for Rankings

Rankings are information tools and quality instruments for different purposes.

Ranking methodologies must be read carefully before using their results.

For any kind of decision-making, rankings should be used as only one source of information and comprehensive analysis is always necessary.

www.Shanghairanking.com

Thank You

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