Friday, October 28, 2011

An ErrorThis replaces an earlier post.Last year Times Higher Education admitted to an error involving Monash University and the University of AdelaideAlso, after the launch of the World University Rankings 2010 it became apparent that, owing to a data processing error, the ranking positions of two Australian universities in the top 200 list were incorrect — the University of Adelaide and

Sunday, October 16, 2011

GLOBAL: Despite ranking changes, questions persist  My article on the Times Higher Education World University Rankings can be accessed at University World NewsThe international university ranking scene is starting to look like the heavyweight boxing division. Titles are proliferating and there is no longer an undisputed champion of the world. Caltech has just been crowned top university by

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Rising Stars of the THE - TR RankingsThese are some of the universities that have risen significantly in the rankings compared to last year.EuropeKarolinska InstituteMunichLSEZurichLeuvenWageningenLeidenUppsalaSheffieldHumboldtUSAUC DavisMinnesotaPennStateMichigan StateAustraliaMonashAsiaOsakaTohoku
Caltech in First PlaceThe big news of the 2011 THE - TR rankings is that Caltech has replaced Harvard as the world's top university. So how exactly did they do it?According to the Times Higher iPad apps for this year and last (easily downloadable from the rankings page), Harvard's total score fell from 96.1 to 93.9 and Caltech's from 96.0 to 94.8, turning a 0.1 Harvard lead into one of 0.9 for
Update on AlexandriaElnaschiewatch reports that Hend Hanafi, President of Alexandria University, has resigned following prolonged student protests.Apparently she was under fire because of her links to the old regime but one wonders whether her university's apparent fall of nearly 200 places in the THE - TR rankings gave her a final push. If so, we hope that Times Higher will send a letter of
Meanwhile over in AlexandriaOne of the strangest results of the 2010 THE - TR rankings was the elevation of Alexandria University in Egypt to the improbable status of fourth best university in the world for research impact and 147th overall. It turned out that this was almost entirely the work of precisely one marginal academic figure, Mohamed El Naschie, former editor of the journal Chaos

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Who else is down ?Just looking at the top 200 of the THE rankings, these universities have fallen quite a bit.University of North Carolina Chapel HillSydneyEcole Normale SuperieureEcole PolytechniqueTrinity College DublinUniversity College DublinWilliam and Mary CollegeUniversity of Virginia
Asian Decline?The Shanghai rankings have shown that universities in Korea, China (including Taiwan and Hong Kong) and the Middle East  have been steadily advancing over the years. Did they get it wrong?The latest  Times Higher Education -Thomson Reuters rankings appear to prove that Asian universities have inexplicably collapsed over the last year. Tokyo has dropped from 26th to 30th place.
New Arrivals in the THE Top 200.Every time a new ranking is published there are cries for the dismissal or worse of vice-chancellors or presidents who allowed their universities to lose ground. There will no doubt be more demands as the results of this year's THE rankings are digested. This will be very unjust since there are reasons why universities might take a tumble that have nothing to do

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Highlights of the THE rankingsSome interesting results.57.  Ohio State University103.  Cape Town107 Royal Holloway149. Birkbeck184. Iowa State197. Georgia Health Sciences University201-225. Bilkent201-225 University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey226-250 Creighton University USA226-250 Tokyo Metropolitan251-275 Wayne State276-300 University of Crete276-300 University of Iceland276-300
THE Rankings OutThe THE 2011-12 rankings are out.Here is the top 10.1. Caltech2. Harvard3. Stanford4. Oxford5. Princeton6. Cambridge7. MIT8. Imperial College London9. Chicago10. Berkeley
THE Rankings: Caltech Ousts HarvardThis is from the Peninsula in Qatar LONDON: US and British institutions once again dominate an annual worldwide league table of universities published yesterday, but there is a fresh name at the top, unseating long-time leader Harvard.California Institute of Technology (Caltech) knocked the famous Massachusetts institution from the summit of the Times Higher