Times Higher Education (THE) has released its 2015 World University Rankings. The THE rankings are just one of at least ten ranking systems and reports currently being used to measure academic institutions in an increasingly global education environment. Each ranking system brings with it its own methodologies – and, of course, challenges to methodologies and data analysis.
This year the THS Rankings use the same performance indicators as last year:
- Teaching (the learning environment) – 30% of the score, with data being sourced from the THE Reputation Survey, staff to student ratios and other measures
- Research (volume, income and reputation) – 30% of the score
- Citations (research influence) – 30% of the score
- International outlook (staff, students and research) – 7.5% of the score
- Industry income (knowledge transfer) – 2.5% of the score
Findings
- The US has 63 universities in the top 200 and six in the top ten including California Institute of Technology (Cal tech) in first place
- The UK has 34 universities in the top 200
- Germany has 20 universities in the top 200 – up from 12 last year
- Europe has 345 universities in the world top 800
- ETH Zurich is a top ten university – the first non-Anglo/American institution to reach the top ten in a decade
More countries are represented in this year’s figures. 70 countries are represented in the top 800 – up from 41 last year. Indonesia, Bangladesh and Kenya are all represented for the first time.
More on the report.