Global university rankings – what’s what

Recently, various media and the public have been discussing the issue of establishing private universities (although private universities exist in the country, the debate was focused on medical universities) and the value of receiving world class education. Related to this, there was another discussion about whether Sri Lankan universities are underperforming or coming up the ranks in the current global university system. This article will try to explain the current global university rankings, pros and cons of these rankings and why our universities should (or not) aim to achieve higher rankings in the global system.

University rankings are relatively new systems established in the 80’s to meet a need for a comparative, acceptable data system about higher education providers mainly in the US [1]. As with many things of American origin, the university ranking system became increasingly popular around the world, and became to be seen as a tool to identify the standing of universities in various countries, subject areas and in the global context. Almost all rankings use various indicators to define an overall numerical value score in various areas of importance, which decides each university’s standing in the ranking system [1]. In this article, the two most prominent rankings systems currently available in the world (Shanghai Jiao Tong University – Academic Rankings of World Universities (AWRU), Times Higher Education – World University Ranking (QSR)) will be used as examples and data sources.

All ranking systems aim to evaluate educational institutions for academic excellence, research output, research funding, impact of educational and research activities in general although some systems such as the AWRU use specific indicators such as number of Nobel prize winning faculty, number of research articles in Nature & Science journals to evaluate universities.  These rankings are useful to measure the excellence of different universities, as a guide for funding allocations, as a guide for investment in education, as a guide to identify and prioritize research areas, to inform the public and as a selection tool for students and academics to choose universities [2].

Usually, data for these ranking systems are collected through several different sources [1]. These sources include survey data (opinion surveys of stakeholders), independent observer data (government and other agency data), and university source data (data from each university). Data from these sources are collated into different sets of indicators and then allocated scores usually within a range of 1-100. These data are then weighted by giving higher weights to indicators considered to be of greater importance in the final calculations. By this process, the ‘quality’ of institutions is measured by fitting them in to a universal system by selecting ranker-defined indicators as the measuring output [1].

In most current rankings systems, universities from US, UK and Europe take the top positions and universities from rest of the world regions have a limited presence. Especially universities from the South Asian region are virtually non existent in top 200 university list of most ranking systems. In the most recent rankings, Harvard University tops the AWRU while Cambridge University is at the top of the QS rankings. The top ten universities in both ranking systems are dominated by US and UK based universities including Stanford University, Oxford University, University of California Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), California Institute of Technology (Caltech), University College London and Yale University.

From Asian region, University of Hong Kong and Kyoto University of Japan are in the top in both ranking systems. Japanese, Hong Kong, Singaporean and Chinese universities lead the pack in Asia. Asian region is represented by 25 universities in the top 200 or AWRU rankings. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in various states features in both ranking systems among the top 500 universities in the world. From Sri Lanka, University of Colombo ranks as 601+ (+ denotes that there are number of other universities in the same position) in the QS system. Other Sri Lankan universities do not have any overall rank in the QS system. No Sri Lankan university features in the top 200 Asian university list of QS. Also, AWRU does not feature any Sri Lankan universities.

There are number of criticisms about university ranking systems, mainly about the methodology used to define the indicators and where each university stands in these systems.  As it turns out, ranking systems are different to each other in various aspects, depending on the key indicators, the data sources and other methodologies used in determining the rankings. It is evident that the definition of ‘quality’ is different in each ranking system. However, striking fact is that top universities ‘top’ almost all ranking systems regardless of their methodological differences in ranking, showing evidence that the best universities do hold up their perceived reputations to be the ‘best’.

Other criticisms are based on facts such as requiring Nobel Prize winning faculty and publications in Nature and Science in order to be ranked higher. For most universities from the developing world, or even from the developed world for that matter, to have Nobel prize winning faculty attached to the university is a very distant dream, a dream that may not come true for the whole time of existence as an educational institution. Also, research that merits a publication in journals such as Nature and Science come from a significant minority of world’s universities. Also, increasing number of publications with junk science, and creating large mega-universities (promoting international brain drain) are ways to get in to higher positions in ranking systems [2]. In this reality, certain criticisms about ranking systems appear to be well founded.

So, where do we stand as a country? How are Sri Lankan universities fairing among leading educational institutions in today’s globalised context? According to most ranking systems, Sri Lankan universities are not doing well at all in the global stage. They feature very low in terms of research funding generation, and in overall generation of world-class research output. There may be several reasons for this underperformance, including lack of resources, lack of a research culture in the university system and the ‘brain drain’ experienced by Sri Lankan academia. In a time of many students migrating abroad for higher studies, taking financial and human resources away from the country, it is becoming increasingly important for Sri Lankan universities to get their acts together and improve in education provision, research output and overall academic performance. This will contribute to minimize financial resource drain and brain drain, which are crucial for the development of the post-war Sri Lanka as a country ready to face the future.

A way forward will be to establish a university ranking system in the country and encourage all higher education institutions to work towards attaining higher scores in this system. This would enhance the academic quality, research output and create a competitive edge among the faculty and students of universities, and may lead to a gradual increase in the overall quality of our higher education system. Another way forward will be to establish research and academic collaborations with top universities from South Asian, Asian and other regions of the world, paving a way for Sri Lankan academics to conduct cutting edge research and attract global research funding.

Although we do not have to enter another aimless rat race to gain higher rankings in the global standings, it will be helpful to take those rankings and indicators as guiding markers to improve the university system in the country, which stands to benefit thousands Sri Lankan children in the years to come and also contribute to increasing the ultimate benefits of the free education system for people of Sri Lanka.

References:

1. Alex Usher & Massimo Savino. A world of difference: A global survey of university league tables. Educational Policy Institute. 2006
2. Loannidis JPA, Patsopoulos NA, Kavvoura FK et al., International ranking systems for universities and institutions: a critical appraisal. BMC Medicine. 2007. 5:30

Dr Chesmal Siriwardhana MD MSc _(Lon)