A Longitudinal Analysis of University Rankings
Pressured by globalization and the increasing demand for public organisations to be accountable, efficient and transparent, university rankings have become an important tool for assessing the quality of higher education institutions. It is therefore important to carefully assess exactly what thes...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/85128 |
| _version_ | 1848764717410025472 |
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| author | Selten, Friso Neylon, Cameron Huang, Karl Groth, Paul |
| author_facet | Selten, Friso Neylon, Cameron Huang, Karl Groth, Paul |
| author_sort | Selten, Friso |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Pressured by globalization and the increasing demand for public organisations
to be accountable, efficient and transparent, university rankings have become
an important tool for assessing the quality of higher education institutions.
It is therefore important to carefully assess exactly what these rankings
measure. In this paper, the three major global university rankings, The
Academic Ranking of World Universities, The Times Higher Education and the
Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings, are studied. After a
description of the ranking methodologies, it is shown that university rankings
are stable over time but that there is variation between the three rankings.
Furthermore, using Principal Component Analysis and Exploratory Factor
Analysis, we show that the variables used to construct the rankings primarily
measure two underlying factors: a universities reputation and its research
performance. By correlating these factors and plotting regional aggregates of
universities on the two factors, differences between the rankings are made
visible. Last, we elaborate how the results from these analysis can be viewed
in light of often voiced critiques of the ranking process. This indicates that
the variables used by the rankings might not capture the concepts they claim to
measure. Doing so the study provides evidence of the ambiguous nature of
university ranking's quantification of university performance. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:23:48Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-85128 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:23:48Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-851282023-02-16T06:37:56Z A Longitudinal Analysis of University Rankings Selten, Friso Neylon, Cameron Huang, Karl Groth, Paul cs.SI cs.SI cs.DL physics.soc-ph Pressured by globalization and the increasing demand for public organisations to be accountable, efficient and transparent, university rankings have become an important tool for assessing the quality of higher education institutions. It is therefore important to carefully assess exactly what these rankings measure. In this paper, the three major global university rankings, The Academic Ranking of World Universities, The Times Higher Education and the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings, are studied. After a description of the ranking methodologies, it is shown that university rankings are stable over time but that there is variation between the three rankings. Furthermore, using Principal Component Analysis and Exploratory Factor Analysis, we show that the variables used to construct the rankings primarily measure two underlying factors: a universities reputation and its research performance. By correlating these factors and plotting regional aggregates of universities on the two factors, differences between the rankings are made visible. Last, we elaborate how the results from these analysis can be viewed in light of often voiced critiques of the ranking process. This indicates that the variables used by the rankings might not capture the concepts they claim to measure. Doing so the study provides evidence of the ambiguous nature of university ranking's quantification of university performance. 2020 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/85128 10.1162/qss_a_00052 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ fulltext |
| spellingShingle | cs.SI cs.SI cs.DL physics.soc-ph Selten, Friso Neylon, Cameron Huang, Karl Groth, Paul A Longitudinal Analysis of University Rankings |
| title | A Longitudinal Analysis of University Rankings |
| title_full | A Longitudinal Analysis of University Rankings |
| title_fullStr | A Longitudinal Analysis of University Rankings |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Longitudinal Analysis of University Rankings |
| title_short | A Longitudinal Analysis of University Rankings |
| title_sort | longitudinal analysis of university rankings |
| topic | cs.SI cs.SI cs.DL physics.soc-ph |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/85128 |