Compare and contrast the methodology of three international university ranking systems and suggest the ranking system which offers the best analysis of university quality In recent years, how to select the university ranking system becomes one of the most debatable topics if students want to choose the university to study. The world seems to be obsessed with ranking in every of life. Whether the government of the countries or the companies, they all like ranking to showcase themselves or attract more investors.
This is not surprising, and then, in the present higher education world by increased global competition for students, the number of league table of universities has grown rapidly in recent years. The public are more preoccupied with the performance of the higher education institution and getting the best value as consumers of the education. The Shanghai Jiao Tong Rankings, the THES(Times Higher Education Supplement) Rankings and the CHES Rankings, these three relatively authority rankings become the most important base when many students select their desired university.
These three ranking system all offer the excellent analysis of the university quality, however they have some different. This essay will compare and contrast the methodology of these three international university ranking system. The THES Rankings is one of the ranking systems which are extensive use in the most recent. It has more attention because the peer review is a key criterion in this ranking system. Many experts consider that if people know the subject whose are their own research field very well, and then they can evaluate to this subject more exact.
So there are about 40% of a university’s total score is determined by peer review in the THES system. This methodology has inevitable influence to the final ranking. “The qualitative data is based on our belief that the people who know most about the university quality are those who work in them or are closely connected to them. ” the organizers of the THES said (2007). Nevertheless, many people think these opinions could be tending to their own scholarly and theoretical, and then, experts are likely to prefer departments that are strong in their research areas.
And another factor is that experts in their field unlikely to be immune to the influence of reputation. These factors all influence the fairness of the ranking. So, this ranking system is not a perfect methodology which can provide to students to select. Another famous higher education ranking system produces by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University which has more different to the THES. Many people believe that the Shanghai System has clearly superiority to THES because the factor of this system has more transparency.
It score attach importance to the awards which are the number of articles published in the journals or Nobel Prize by staff and students and the public can see these criteria very clearly. However, the negative effect of this ranking method is obvious. The ranking only consider to the students or staff who have the Nobel Prize, that without having higher teaching standards. In addition, many data of the Shanghai system only extract in the professional journals and the public can’t contact these data convenient and fast.
Although, the system focus very high quality research and explain the stress on science, but it is not enough. On the whole, the Shanghai Jiao Tong System concern with genuine criteria rather than symptom that is considered by THES, although the rankings among the top ten universities is very similar (Taylor and Braddock, 2007). It is not perfect but it can give an intuitionist reference to students and their parents to choose the university. For the third authority ranking system-CHE (Center for Higher Education Development), it has more difference to first two kind.
The biggest difference of the CHE to others system is this not a ranking system or a league table. An accurate ranking table often utilitarian row seating to universities rather than reflect their quality of education. As a result, it merely is an evaluate system and divided universities into three different levels: a top, middle or bottom group. And provides a selection list of indicators to the students is different for universities. This method avoids misleading students if the ranking score only have tiny difference.
In addition, the ranking tend to single subject, instead of comprehensive strength of university. They consider that every university has the benefits and weakness in difference subjects, but these can’t decide the education quality of the university. This criterion has more similar to the THES. On the other hand, number of the CHE publications in the web of science, rather than like to others publish on the professional journals. “The CHE ExcellenceRanking 2010 ”(Berghoff, 2011) pointed out that in the years 1997-2007, at least 3,000 publications of CHE counted in the web science.
This is more adapt modern society which the Internet development rapidly. Whatever, these three ranking systems all is the multi-indictor ranking of universities which main purpose is to help students find a suitable higher education institution. They although have more difference point of views when they take a ranking, but they still have some common interests whether the advantages or the disadvantages. They only rank seldom excellent universities in their systems, instead of all over the universities all over the world.
They give results for only 700-1000 universities, which are only a small portion of the approximately 17,000 universities in the world and left the majority of the world’s universities out of the ranking table. (Rauhvargers, 2011) This can not stand for the quality of higher education all over the world. Nevertheless, they still establish a criterion give students to make a reference on the academic articles. This cans helpful more students to select their idea university. To sum up, each ranking have their own benefits but all have many drawbacks.
How to choose a suitable ranking system still is a difficult question to every student. At the same time, building an idea rankings system is going to become a hotspot in the future. However, any ranking system is just a reference if the students want to select a university to study. No amount of ranking system and league table all can’t stop the enthusiasm and interest of the students who love their idea university or subject. Valuing the opportunity of acquiring knowledge is more important than any ranking. List of Reference 2007)” Higher Education in Europe”Editorial 29th Oct 2007,32:1,1-3 Rauhvargers,A. (2011)”GLOBAL UNIVERSITY RANKINGS AND THEIR IMPACT”European University Association Berghoff. S. , Brandenburg. U,Carr-Boulay. D,Hachmeister. D. ,Leichsenring. H&Ziegele. F “Identifying the Best:The CHE ExcellenceRanking 2010 “CHE Kalvemark. T(2007) “University Ranking Systems: A Critique” Taylor. P* and Braddock. R(2007)” International University Ranking Systems and the Idea of University Excellence” Higher Education Policy and Management Vol. 29(pp. 245–260), No. 3, November 2007
