The University of Zurich has announced that it will no longer submit data to the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings and their various spin-offs. A statement from the university stated that while “rankings purport to comprehensively measure universities’ diverse achievements in teaching and research, they cannot do so as they reduce indicators to a score and focus on quantitative criteria.”
The university stated that it supported Open Science and high-quality research. It has also signed the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment sponsored by Science Europe, the European University Association, and other groups. However, the rankings emphasized quantity over scientific quality.
Zurich is not the first university to boycott the THE rankings. The elite Indian Institutes of Technology of Bombay, Madras, Delhi, Roorkee, Kanpur, and Kharagpur since 2020, citing a lack of transparency. There were reports in 2022 that Renmin University of China, Nanjing University, and Lanzhou University have withdrawn from “all international university rankings.” In 2023, the University of Utrecht also announced its withdrawal.
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