Times Higher Education (THE) has announced the latest edition of its World Reputation Ranking. There is a new methodology and significant fluctuations, although the ranking is quite stable at the top.
THE now uses six indicators. In addition to the vote counts used in previous rankings, they now rate universities according to pairwise comparison, where respondents are presented with a list of pre-selected universities in order to encourage them to consider a broader range of institutions, and voter diversity, which measures the range of countries and subjects from which a university receives votes. The weighting is 60% for vote count, 20% for pairwise comparison, and 20% for voter diversity, with each of these equally divided between teaching and research.
At the very top things have changed very little. The top five universities are:
- Harvard University
2= Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2= University of Oxford
4= Stanford University
4= University of Cambridge.
However, some countries have been severely affected by the new methodology. Last year there were nine Arab universities in the reputation rankings. This year they are all gone and replaced by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), which does not teach undergraduates.
Indian universities have also suffered. In the 2023 rankings, there were four Indian universities in the top 200 but this year, one is no longer in the rankings and three have been demoted to the 201-300 band.
In the 2023, with 200 ranked institutions, rankings there were 15 Chinese universities. Now, there 10 out of 300 and five are in the top 200. Tsinghua and Peking Universities, however, retain their places in 8th and 11th places respectively.
Meanwhile universities from Chile, Malaysia, Poland, and Portugal are included in these rankings for the first time.
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