Nature Index Identifies Rising Stars of Research
25 September 2018
Nature Index is a ranking based on a database of papers in scientific journals with the greatest global impact. It is updated every six months and several supplements are issued each year. The Rising Stars supplement identifies researchers and institutions that have improved most. The indicator is the change in the fractional count between 2015 and 2017 of papers published in the selective list.The list is dominated by China, which holds nine of the top ten places and 79 of the top 200. The combined Indian Institutes of Technology are seventh.
UK Universities Rebuked for Misusing Ranking Data
21 September 2018
Alex Hayman, Managing Director of Which?University, has published an article in wonkHE about UK universities misusing the results of rankings in their advertising. He refers to six cases: Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Aston University, the University of Aberdeen, Newcastle University, Ulster University, and the University of the West of Scotland.The universities have responded differently. Heriot-Watt has stood by its claim that it is “one of the world’s leading universities for pioneering research informed by the needs of business and industry” and Ulster University insists that it is in the top 3% of the world’s universities, based on a total 26,000 universities in the world.
Luiz Costa honored by Brazilian Network of Research in Rankings
The IREG president, Prof. Luiz Claudio Costa was appointed first emeritus member of the RANKINTACS NETWORK - Brazilian Network of Research in Rankings, Indexes and Tables Classificatory in Higher Education*. The ceremony took place during the REDE RANKINTACS 2nd Seminar, held on August 23rd, at the Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas (PUC-Campinas), Campinas. Luiz Costa gave a lecture entitled "Academic Rankings in Higher Education: Trends and Perspectives" in which he highlighted the university rankings importance as another source of information available to university governance, as well as potential tool for improving institutions’ quality.
Rankings and Standardised Tests Correlate
18 September 2017
An article by Jonathon Wai in The Conversation asks what is really measured by university rankings. The article focuses on America’s Best Colleges, published by US News, and the indicators that use scores in the SAT or ACT, standardised tests taken by applicants to most American colleges. His discussion is based on a paper in the Journal of Intelligence that he co-authored with Matt I. Brown and Christopher F. Chabris.
Asian and Australian Universities Shine in QS Employability Rankings
13 September 2018
The third edition of the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Global Employability Rankings have produced results that are quite different form the other of the QS World University Rankings or other research based rankings. The University of Melbourne is 6th in the employability rankings but was 39th in QS’s world rankings. Caltech, fourth in the world rankings, is 71st for employability. It is also noticeable that Asian universities are doing well for graduate employability.
US News Revises Ranking Methodology
11 September 2018
The America’s Best Colleges ranking, published by US News, has for many years been a standard reference for prospective students, administrators and stakeholders. It has, however, sometimes been criticised for methodological shortcomings. The reliance on peer assessment might encourage a bias towards richer private universities and it has been claimed that using standardised test scores as an indicator results in privileging those students who can afford expensive coaching.
Members area
© 2018 IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence