CHARACTERIZATION OF IBERO-AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES IN TOP500 OF ACADEMIC RANKING OF WORLD UNIVERSITIES 2019- 2020

Abstract

Criteria and indicators to classify universities in Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) annually produces a list of the top 1,000 University Education Institutions of the world according to four criteria and six indicators: Alumni, Award, HiCi, N&S, PUB and PCP, evaluating university performance in terms of quality of de academic and research activities. This paper aims to perform a comparative study, through a descriptive analysis, of Ibero-American universities in Top500 of ARWU 2019 and ARWU 2020, to relate and compare their indicators, and to determine the gap with better placed universities and, also, highlights which have best indicator results according to rank criteria. 25 Ibero-American universities highlight as results in Top500: thirteen are Spanish, six Brazilian, three Portuguese, one Mexican, one Argentine and one Chilean, which do not change in WRs 101-150, 151-200 and 201-300. In Quality of Faculty criterion, with a weight of 40%, UBA (AR) is positioned in WR 201-300, in both years, with highest values of SAw, and UB (ES) positioned in WR 151-200, in both years, with highest values of SHiCi. In Research Output criterion, also with a weight of 40%, UPF (ES) positioned in WR 301-400, with highest values of SN&S in both years, and USP (BR) is the best Ibero-American university positioned in WR 101-150 and presents the highest PUB value.