University ranking today is an increasingly vital tool for making choices on higher education by students, their parents, and often the institutions themselves. It casts light, more than ever, on how universities compare in a range of key areas, from academic reputation through to student experience. But how are these ratings made? What factors are taken into consideration, and how do they compare with one ranking system compared to another? The following detailed overview now breaks down the process that universities undertake for rating, considers a look at major ranking systems, and identifies key criteria influencing the ratings.

Understanding the Purpose of University Rankings

The purpose that university rankings serve is multifunctional:

  • To prospective students, they offer a glimpse into what to expect both academically and socially from the university to assist them in making informed decisions.
  • To institutions, they provide benchmarks against which to measure performance and identify areas for improvement.
  • They act like indicators to the governments and funding bodies on how to portion resources and support to star institutions.

But let every person be reminded: no single ranking can capture the complete experience or quality of any university. Rather, rankings represent metrics, which in turn are different in nature depending on the adopted methodology.

The Major University Ranking Systems

Different organizations around the world publish university rankings, each with its own methodology and criteria. More well-known ones include:

QS World University Rankings

The best known perhaps is Quacquarelli Symonds, or QS. QS rankings are based on the following:

  • Academic reputation: 40%
  • Employer reputation: 10%
  • Faculty/student ratio: 20%
  • Citations per faculty: 20%
  • International faculty ratio: 5%
  • International student ratio: 5%

Times Higher Education, THE World University Rankings

The following bears great significance in Times Higher Education rankings:

  • Teaching 30%: learning environment, student-to-staff ratios, doctorate-to-bachelor's ratios.
  • Research 30%: volume, income, reputation.
  • Citations 30%: a measure of research influence.
  • International diversity 7.5%: staff, students, research.
  • Industry income 2.5%: knowledge transfer and partnerships with industries.

Academic Ranking of World Universities ARWU – Shanghai Ranking

The ARWU is sometimes referred to as the Shanghai Ranking and therefore carries a certain reputation in focusing on research and academic performance. Its criteria include:

  • Quality of Education: Alumni winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals: 10%
  • Quality of Faculty: Staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals: 20%
  • Highly cited researchers: 20%
  • Research Output: Papers published in Nature and Science: 20%, papers indexed in major citation databases: 20%
  • Per capita academic performance: 10%.



U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities

This ranking focuses on academic research and the overall reputation of the higher education institution and not undergraduate teaching. The key criteria keep in mind are as follows:

  • International research reputation: 12.5%
  • Regional research reputation: 12.5%
  • Publications: 10%
  • Books and conferences: 5%
  • Normalized citation impact: 10%

Each ranking system has a number of strengths and weaknesses, while each measures something else in university performance; therefore, it is important to understand the criteria behind each ranking system before relying on the results.

Common Metrics Applied in University Rankings

While each ranking system applies its formula, most rankings are based on a set of common metrics that rank the universities. These include:



Academic Reputation

Academic reputation is the most common and largest factor in university ranking. To this end, various organizations, such as QS and THE, engage in surveys among academics globally. They are asked to identify institutions which they believe conduct the best research in their respective fields. In this respect, the more recognition a university has within the global academic community, the higher it will rank.



Research Output and Citations

Other crucial metrics include research output, usually measured by the number of published papers, books, and conference presentations. In particular, both ARWU and THE place strong emphasis on this metric. Citations-the frequency with which a university's research work is cited by other scholars-are measures of the research impact and influence.



Student-to-Faculty Ratio

It is the ratio of students to faculty. The assumption behind this metric is that the lower the ratio, the smaller the class sizes, which ensures more individualized attention and a better experience for students.



Employer Reputation

Apart from academic reputation, some rankings, such as QS, also consider employer reputation. Employers are asked to mention which universities supply graduates who most possess the skills and knowledge that are required in the job market. This allows one to know how well a university prepares its students for life after graduation.



Internationalization

In this respect, University rankings for institutions that attract a high percentage of international students and staff benefit from the high level of their performance in this measure. The rationale that lies behind this is the fact that the environment where students learn becomes more enriching and engaging, which gives wider perspectives and allows one to understand other cultures by communicating with people from different walks of life.



Alumni Outcomes

Success of alumni is a factor that plays in university ranking for some ranking systems. It may also be measured by the number of Nobel Prizes won by alumni or the achievements of the alumni in different fields.

Institutional Income

For example, THE rankings view university income as an indicator of a university's financial health and its capacity to invest in research and equipment for students. Often, richer universities are in a better position to finance research projects, provide scholarships for students, and maintain state-of-the-art facilities.

The Contribution of Surveys and Peer Review

Most ranking systems depend on heavy machinery for conducting surveys by taking opinions from thousands of academics, employers, and students. These subjective data become combined with more objective measures, such as research output and citations.

  • Academic Peer Review: Academics are asked to assess universities in their fields; this informs one subjective but better-informed metric of a university's reputation.
  • Student Surveys: Some rankings, like the NSS in the UK, measures students' feedback about their experience at university concerning teaching quality, resources, and campus life.
  • Employer Surveys: Employers are asked which institutions produce graduates that are the most prepared for working life. This feeds into the employer reputation metrics. Such surveys may define up to a quarter of an institution's overall score, and hence, reputation and perception become extremely important in rankings.

Limitations and Criticisms of University Rankings

University rankings provide valuable information; they have, however, been primarily criticized based on several grounds. Some of the significant limitations are:



Excessive Emphasis on Research

Most of the ranking systems, especially ARWU and THE, have heavy weights for research output and citations. This might put universities that emphasize teaching or those who have substantial undergraduate programs but relatively lower emphasis on producing cutting edge-research at a disadvantage.



Negligence of Student Experience

More often than not, it will omit some critical variables that students would look out for in a college experience, such as campus facilities, mental health support, or extra-curricular opportunities. The university that appears in the top spot in the ranking may not necessarily provide the best student life.



Cultural and Regional Bias

Global rankings could be biased towards universities in English-speaking countries, mainly the US and the UK. This partly emanates from the influence of English in academic publishing and metrics with a Western-centric bias, such as Nobel Prizes.



Availability of Data

Not every university is in a position to provide complete data to ranking organizations: smaller institutions, especially those located in developing countries, simply do not have the resources to gather and report information. This puts them immediately at a disadvantage on the world stage.

Regional and Specialized University Rankings

Besides global rankings, many countries and regions have local ranking systems. These usually have their own emphasis, such as student satisfaction, employability, or affordability.



For example, in the United States, the U.S. News & World Report's Best Colleges ranking puts more emphasis on undergraduate education, with special weighting given to graduation rates and financial aid.

Complete University Guide can supply some rankings on the quality of teaching, student satisfaction, and career prospects in the UK.

There are also specialized rankings for more narrow fields of study, like law, medicine, or engineering. These often carry more specific information for students in one or another career direction.

What Is the Future of University Rankings?

Where the nature of higher education is evolving, university rankings will evolve along with it. There is greater interest in measures that would be more relevant for the student experience and long-term outcomes, such as graduate employability and alumni networks. Some of the ranking organizations are also working on ways to include measures of social impact, sustainability, and diversity into their criteria.



Moreover, deeper data analytics may make possible the extraction of much more personalized ranking systems, reflecting the different preferences and priorities of each individual student.

How to Use University Rankings Wisely

University rankings can be useful to students; however, they should not be the sole basis for the student in selecting a university. The following advice may help students effectively use the ranking:

  • Comparison across different ranking systems: Each of the ranking systems considers different criteria; therefore, the comparison of results from QS, THE, and ARWU, among others, will make the exercise even more balanced.
  • Pay attention to what matters most to you: If you are more interested in teaching quality than research output, then focus on those rankings that would give priority to student satisfaction and metrics of teaching.
  • Consider the specialized rankings: "If you are pursuing a particular field of study, check out specialized rankings that report on your subject area."


While university rankings can be a good guide to quality and reputation for the institutions from around the world, they are far from perfect. By understanding how such a list is created, what metrics are taken into consideration, and what limitations are involved, students and educators alike will be better prepared to make informed decisions. Rankings should be one of the many tools used to evaluate a university, not in place of but in addition to important factors such as personal fit, program offerings, and campus culture.