University Ranking Systems Research Articles

How to rank schools of public health? The PHAR project

Abstract Background Since the shattering and abrupt withdrawal of several Ivy League universities from ranking systems in 2022, the debate on rankings has been raging in the academic world and beyond. Despite this, rankings have undeniable advantages and continue to be used on a daily basis by a variety of stakeholders. As a previous work has demonstrated that there is no ranking specifically designed for schools of public health, the aim of this project was to create one. Methods To create the Public Health Academic Ranking (PHAR), the InCites Benchmarking and Analytics™ software and the Web Of Science™ Core Collection database were employed. Bibliometric data on 26 schools of public health, from each continent, were collected between August and September 2022. Eleven research indicators and scores, covering four criteria (productivity, quality, accessibility for readers, international collaboration), for the period 2017-2021, were used. For some schools whose affiliation was not mentioned directly in the software, a specific methodology was designed and tested, with unique research queries applied to the database. Results The five top schools of the PHAR were: the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Conclusions The PHAR provides an international bibliometric ranking of schools of public health. As this is a pilot project, the results should be taken with caution and future improvements should be developed. Key messages • The PHAR is the first university ranking system specifically designed for schools of public health and focuses on the research field of this discipline. • The PHAR makes it possible to rank schools of public health with an unusual structure (such as the PHFI and the SSPH+), which are generally overlooked by traditional rankings.

Alumni Rating Index and Monitoring Dashboard Technology to Improve University’s Performance and Service Quality

Limited number of university ranking systems have considered the perspectives of alumni or individuals who have availed themselves of the educational programs or services provided by the institutions. In Malaysia, there is a lack of comprehensive rankings or assessments that primarily focus on assessing university performance through the lens of student experiences. In the absence of authentic user experiences, prospective students and other relevant parties commonly rely on conventional academic rankings such as the QS or THE to ascertain the quality of a university. The primary aims of this research endeavour encompass the identification of pivotal variables for the evaluation of higher learning institution’s performance, the creation of an alumni rating index, and the establishment of a performance monitoring tool utilizing dashboard technology. The goals are to enhance performance and service quality of institutions of higher education. The present study utilizes a quantitative research approach and centres its investigation on many cohorts of graduates originating from a prominent Malaysian university. A rigorous cluster sampling procedure was implemented. The assessment of alumni rating is conducted across twelve dimensions, with each component being evaluated using appropriate variables that enable the calculation of the desired index and facilitate the execution of intricate studies. The analytics that were performed and the alumni rating index that was calculated were subsequently shared with stakeholders through the use of an analytical dashboard. The dashboard was developed on user experience (UX) design principles. The evaluation of the produced dashboard is thereafter conducted by a group of stakeholders who have direct involvement in enhancing alumni engagement. The findings suggest that the university attained elevated ratings in the domains of social involvement, educational resources, and financial value. However, the scores for financial aid, student development, and student well-being were significantly lower. Despite the provision of various financial support, the respondents hold the belief that these forms of assistance are inadequate. The paper concludes by demonstrating the implementation of an alumni rating dashboard. The research is expected to facilitate the development of a localise university rankings and ratings, as well as informed policy-making efforts at the ministry level.

The politics of distraction in English-medium higher education across three global settings: a collaborative autoethnography

ABSTRACT English-medium instruction (EMI) is on the rise around the world due to globalization, internationalization and neoliberal ideologies which equate English with social capital, prestige, and success in the labour market. While many EMI policies aim to equip students with English as a ‘lingua academia’, produce ‘neoliberal subjects’ and compete in university ranking systems, such policies often overlook larger sociolinguistic, sociohistorical, and sociopolitical issues at play. This article shares findings from a collaborative autoethnography (CAE) involving the three authors as participants, who are based in three global contexts: Australia, Bangladesh, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Upon analysis of a series of dialogues amongst the authors, ‘policy distractions’ in EMI higher education were identified which resulted in the sidelining of critical issues related to native-speakerism, translingual discrimination and precarious conditions of students’ translingual practice, (lack of) choice around the medium of instruction, and the postcolonial legacy of unequal Englishes. The paper ends with suggestions for ways in which current EMI policies can be unpacked and disrupted to address larger and more pressing issues connected with complexities and intersections of social and linguistic justice.

Evaluation of University Ranking System to Propose a Model for Bangladeshi Universities

This study investigates and compares various university ranking systems, particularly considering the unique situation of Bangladesh. With the rise of globalization and emphasis on research in the knowledge-based economy, university rankings have gained significant attention. However, different organizations use diverse criteria and methodologies, leading to discrepancies in ranking positions. This research employed a two-phase approach. The first phase involved a systematic literature review focusing on globally used indicators and methodologies for university rankings. This phase revealed that research-related indicators hold the highest weightage (67.93%) in most ranking systems. Subsequently, the second phase utilized active ranking algorithms to explore the findings from the first phase. The study concludes that research output significantly influences a university's ranking and competitiveness globally. Considering Bangladesh's lower publication volume compared to other nations, adopting a ranking system like QS or THEWUR could be beneficial. This system aligns with the global focus on research output and could incentivize research efforts within Bangladeshi universities.

An analysis of university ranking systems with a focus on QS

An analysis of university ranking systems with a focus on QS

Peran Universitas dalam Mendukung Pencapaian SDGs

Sustainablity is defined as the process of organizations striving to improve the quality of life in their community by balancing economic, social, and environmental factors. A university that excels in knowledge creation and dissemination, while also mobilizing resources to meet socio-economic and environmental needs in an ethical and effective manner, is considered a Sustainable University. Education for Sustainable Development aims to teach students the necessary competencies to drive social, economic, and political change and promote sustainable development. A sustainable future is crucial for our societies and planet, as it considers economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental protection. The UI GreenMetric World University Ranking evaluates universities' environmental commitments and initiatives through 39 indicators in 6 criteria to determine their green campus and environmental keberlanjutan rankings. The research uses a literature review to provide a general understanding of the topic. This research uses literature review for data collection. This research focuses on the top 10 UI GreenMetric universities for research purposes. The article discusses the role of Indonesia's top 10 universities in supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The study uses the UI GreenMetric World University Ranking system to assess the keberlanjutan performance of these universities. The findings show that all of the universities are making progress towards sustainability, but there is still room for improvement.

Development Proposals for Implementing the 17 SDGs in Higher Education Institutions: Early Stages

Universities, as key players in global development, have a vital role in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within their environments. However, measuring progress toward the SDGs poses methodological challenges due to the complex framework comprising 17 goals, 169 targets, and 247 indicators. Within the diverse landscape of university ranking systems, in 2019 emerged the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings (THE IR) being so far the only ranking dedicated to evaluating the performance of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in relation to the SDGs. Despite its validation and participation, there are emerging issues, such as the need to consider local contexts and available resources. This study, originating from the Greek context, aims to serve as the initial stage in formulating a more practical and efficient assessment tool utilizing Multi-criteria Decision Making (MCDM/A), specifically by developing a streamlined set of indicators. Its primary objective is to introduce internationally applicable and unbiased indicators that can provide more accurate evaluations of universities’ progress, toward achieving the SDGs. To achieve this, various criteria were applied to an existing set of indicators, to determine their effectiveness in measuring SDG implementation. The findings of this analysis reveal the emergence of 34 indicators that meet the specified criteria.

Identifying the Determinants Contributing Towards the Achievements of SDGs: A Case Study of a Medical Institute

ABSTRACT The purpose of the study is to analyze the determinants that have helped a medical institution to achieve remarkable success in promoting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within health care. This research is intended to provide important insights into the role that higher education institutions can play in assisting healthcare systems with developing approaches for sustainable development. Taking a case study approach, this research examines the medical institution through comprehensive discussion with faculty and staff members as sources. Within the overall structure of the Case Study design, Grounded Theory is used to ensure a complete understanding. The research is carried out at the renowned medical institution in Pakistan. The whole study, covering a year's time, permits us to examine in depth the factors underlying institutions’ pursuit of SDGs. Inductive methods, and semi-structured interviews were used for data collection. From among 250 faculty and staff, we deliberately selected a specific cohort of 15 faculty members and ten non-faculty personnel who had experience with university ranking systems and made contributions towards SDGs. The results indicate that institution’s success in reaching SDG objectives can be credited to five main elements: delivering high-quality education, carrying out top-notch research, offering social support, advocating for health and wellness, and actively striving for poverty reduction. This information is a key input for policymakers, educators and others who want to improve the function of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) as agents in sustainable development within the field of healthcare. Through comprehensive and strategic planning that addresses each of these determinants, medical institutions have the power to transform society for a healthier tomorrow.

Models for university sustainable development: Overview of international practices

This study focuses on the components of university sustainable development in the way of achieving global competitiveness of the national higher education system. The coordinating role of the university in promoting the principles of sustainable development is due to both its transforming agency as a subject of economic relations and complex activities within the framework of the implementation of the “third mission” in the region. International experience in the development of sustainable development indicators is based on an integrative approach in which subsystems of indicators including economic, environmental, social and institutional ones are distinguished within the framework of a common system. These indicators form the basis of international university ranking systems. The purpose of this study is to analyze the models of sustainable development of participating universities out of the Top 500 global rankings by comparing and systematizing ESG components. The existing classification of sustainable development models is updated by the authors. The concept of “sustainability” is characterized, a description of typical models of sustainable development underlying the activities of Russian and foreign leading universities is presented

Exploring the role of ranking systems towards university performance improvement: A focus group-based study

The development of multiple university ranking systems at national and global levels has been driven by increasing interest in improving efficiency in the national educational sector without compromising the demand for international standards. Global university ranking systems play an important role by providing the foundation for competing in this global era. One approach could be developing and evaluating criteria to reduce the unnecessary use of standard, less productive indicators. This study aims to systematically exploit national and global university ranking systems in terms of their indicators and relevance to national educational needs. This study uses two online qualitative focus groups with 10 participants each. The participants were purposively sampled, and the transcribed data from the focus group were thematically analyzed. Findings indicate that university ranking should include indicators like governance and digital presence, as these are missing in global ranking indicators. These findings will guide the development of a university ranking framework that policymakers and universities can implement to improve institutional performance.

Evaluation of Bangladesh Universities Ranking in the Perspective of World University Ranking

University ranking has been a prominent issue of debate at both the international and national levels in recent years. Many worldwide university rankings have been published in recent years, each based on different performance measures. These evaluations take into account a variety of factors, including the institution's reputation, the student-to- faculty ratio, the percentage of international students, Nobel and other awards, the number of highly cited papers, the number of articles published in Science and Nature, the h-index, web visibility, and other factors due to severe global competition, international ranking systems seldom include any local universities from the standpoint of a developing country like Bangladesh. While it is becoming more difficult for institutions from developing countries to be included in these rankings, the major ranking indicators should be adapted or updated to compete. The study aimed to evaluate Bangladesh Universities ranking from the Perspective of the World University Ranking system by reviewing some of the most commonly referenced university ranking methodologies. A systematic literature review method was followed for this study. Relevant articles and literature were collected from different data sources like google scholar, research gate, Scopus, Web of Science, and ERIC.

MUTU PERGURUAN TINGGI: PERSPEKTIF PERINGKAT UNIVERSITAS GLOBAL DAN AKREDITASI PERGURUAN TINGGI DI INDONESIA

World Class University (WCU) is the dream of all universities in the world, one of the indicators is the global ranking of universities carried out by university rating agencies in the world. The purpose of this study is to explore how the quality of higher education in Indonesia is viewed from the perspective of accreditation and university rankings at the world level. The methodology used is literature studies analysis and other documents. The focus of the analysis is on the official website of university ranking system at the global level and other media announcements to evaluate the relationship between university rankings and college accreditation on the quality of universities. The results of the study are 1). There is no standard indicator of measuring the quality of education as an objective general guideline. 2). Even though the international university rating agencies have different methodologies, both categories and performance indicators used, they have a relationship with the achievement of quality measures. 3). Higher education rankings provide a quantitative external view of the transparency of higher education institutions while quality assurance instruments cover both external and internal institutions. The Government and other policy makers should pay attention to the accreditation factor and the quality assurance system of these universities in making strategic policies, not only by looking at the ranking of universities at the global level.

A Novel Strategic Approach to Evaluating Higher Education Quality Standards in University Colleges Using Multi-Criteria Decision-Making

Universities worldwide strive to achieve excellence in research, learning, teaching, and community services, which are the pillars of their strategic plans. However, satisfying international ranking criteria might not directly result in achieving their strategic objectives. This paper proposes a new approach to rank university colleges by evaluating their educational quality. Standard sets of criteria from multiple international university ranking systems and a university’s strategic plan’s Balanced Scorecard perspectives were cross-mapped for the evaluation. A new multi-criteria decision-making-based framework was applied to six colleges of a non-profit university in the Middle East. It revealed their performance rankings and contributions to the university’s educational quality objectives. This paper offers a novel approach for universities to develop strategies that satisfy multiple international ranking systems while achieving their strategic goals concurrently and as per their priorities. Implications include informing university leaders on the most contributing colleges and assisting in pinpointing quality shortcomings and their causes. This helps universities design better performance indicators and allocate resources to achieve educational excellence. This paper puts forward a new approach for universities to unify their efforts in satisfying the requirements of multiple international ranking systems while achieving their strategic goals.

A Comparative Study of Criteria and Indicators of Local, Regional, and National University Ranking Systems

A Comparative Study of Criteria and Indicators of Local, Regional, and National University Ranking Systems

Vietnamese Higher Education Challenges: Quality Accreditation, Rankings and Ratings

A study analyzing data from an international university ranking system, a regional rating system, and quality accreditation processes revealed that challenges of Vietnamese higher education are identified in three levels: the national system, the institution level, and training programs. Analysis of the multiple datasets exposed 20 potential gaps at the educational institution and training program level assessments, which may be the reasons preventing the top five ASEAN Vietnamese higher education to further advance to higher levels. On that basis, the report proposes eight solutions to improve the quality and competitiveness of the university accreditation, ranking and rating systems.

Critical Analysis of the GreenMetric World University Ranking System: The Issue of Comparability

The Universitas Indonesia GreenMetric World Ranking is the most widely adopted system nowadays to rank worldwide universities’ sustainability. The number of participating universities has consistently increased throughout the last decade. An in-depth analysis of this ranking system is made to assess how sustainability in universities is measured through specific indicators. Specifically, based on expert knowledge, common logic and the scientific literature, these indicators are assessed with respect to whether they can be used to fairly quantify and rank worldwide universities’ sustainability development. Some indicators proposed by the ranking system, such as the number of renewable energy sources on campus and the number of various types of programs for sustainable development, were found to be unable to measure any sustainability development effectively and fairly. Many others, such as the opted sewage disposal modality, the percentage of university budget for sustainability efforts and the ratio of sustainability research funding to total research funding, were found to need adjustment to account for context-specific factors such as availability of renewable energy sources, weather, landscape, original construction and the cultural habits of the enrolled people. Taking into account these considerations, a fairer evaluation and comparison of universities’ sustainability could be achieved which provides universities with information on how to effectively improve their sustainability.

Using Blockchain for Enabling Transparent, Traceable, and Trusted University Ranking Systems

Ranking systems have proven to improve the quality of education and help build the reputation of academic institutions. Each of the current academic ranking systems is based on different methodologies, criteria, and standards of measurement. Academic and employer reputations are subjective indicators of some rankings determined through surveying that is neither transparent nor traceable. The current academic ranking systems fall short of providing transparency and traceability features for both subjective and objective indicators that are used to calculate the ranking. Also, the ranking systems are managed and controlled in a centralized manner by specific entities. This raises concerns about fairness and trust. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based solution to enable transparent, traceable, trusted, and decentralized academic ranking systems. We develop smart contracts to automatically govern entity interactions according to set policies. We leverage decentralized storage, oracles, and threshold encryption to securely fetch, store, and share institutions’ ranking data. We present algorithms along with their implementation and testing details, as well as validate smart contracts. The proposed solution is evaluated in terms of cost, throughput and latency, and security to show its affordability, resiliency against attacks, and superiority. All developed smart contract codes are made publicly available on GitHub.

Cluster analysis of the effectiveness of management of higher education institutions

The object of research is the internal structure of management in universities. The research problem is to confirm the causal relationship between management and rating. Higher education is one of the most important indicators of the level of development of the state. That is why many countries of the world attach great importance to the issue of the quality of higher education. Different international and national university ranking systems of universities were created to reflect the quality of education in the corresponding higher educational institutions. Currently, university ranking includes such criteria as quality of education, indicators of employment of university graduates, the demand for the graduates in the labor market, the symbiosis of science, education and business, and mobility of students. These indicators are a direct result of effective management in universities. Based on this hypothesis, the paper makes an assumption about the possibility of clustering universities in the Republic of Kazakhstan in order to determine the effectiveness of management. The authors consider three clustering models: clear and fuzzy clustering based on k-means and agglomerative cluster analysis. It should be noted that the clustering of universities makes it possible to determine some consistency in relation to the organization of university management. The division of universities into clusters according to the degree of deterioration in management makes it possible to create a kind of hierarchical ranking of the organization of management of university activities. This creates prerequisites for analyzing the internal structure of management in leading universities with the purpose of studying and adopting these practices by universities in lower clusters

The moderating effect of altmetrics on the correlations between single and multi-faceted university ranking systems: the case of THE and QS vs. Nature Index and Leiden

The moderating effect of altmetrics on the correlations between single and multi-faceted university ranking systems: the case of THE and QS vs. Nature Index and Leiden

Event management literature: exploring the missing body of knowledge

ABSTRACT English is increasingly the dominant language of academic scholarship. This means that much research produced in other languages is overlooked, a tendency strengthened by the growing power of global publishers and university ranking systems. This initial scoping study provides an exploratory review of non-English scholarship in the field of event management, drawing on an extensive literature search in Arabic, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Slovenian and Spanish. We find a considerable number of event management publications in these languages, which effectively represent a ‘missing body of knowledge’ for scholars working in English. Only about 10% of these non-English sources are covered by Scopus, for example. Our scoping study indicates that this excludes many scholars and potentially interesting areas of work from the global event management corpus. We suggest several strategies which could be employed to address these issues.