World Universities’ Ranking on the Web

I’m not sure if this site has been posted before, but it is interesting to see how universities from around the world stack up against each other.

http://www.webometrics.info/top2000.asp.htm

Aside from the fact that the site includes universities from all over the world, the rankings are quite different than those listed in the U.S. News Rankings.

 

A quick count gives me 73 of 100 in the US with the top 25 being in the US. I know we have many good schools here but I wouldn't expect such a lopsided result.

 

Thank you, PhD2B. Excellent information. Thank you.

 

Thanks for posting this, PhD2B. It's very interesting.

Here's how they describe their methodology:

The ranking is based on a combined indicator that takes into consideration the volume of the published material on the web, and the visibility and impact of these webpages measured by the sitations (site citations) or links they received (inlinks). It is derived from the Web Impact Factor, build on the same idea as the bibliographic databases based Impact Factor of the Journal Citation Reports...

This is basically what I've been shooting for with my Googling of unaccredited schools. But a qualitative approach seems more appropriate than a quantitative one. That's because many cites and links have little academic or scholarly significance. A single mention on an FAA, National Transportation Safety Board or military website might do more to advance NTPS' credibility than a hundred advertising hits do for Akamai. So there probably needs to be a way to screen raw hits for significance and to assign them weight. I mean, how many UC Berkeley web hits concern the Cal sports teams?

These Spaniards explain their methodology a little more here:

http://www.webometrics.info/methodology.html

 

I prefer the London Times Higher Education Supplement world rankings, discussed by Wikipedia, simply because it gives this more qualitative analysis and begins by questioning 1300 academics in addition to the quantitative measures. One can certainly debate the qualities of the reviewers 1300 ways, but this qualitative analysis makes sense to me without foreclosing debate, and even Wikipedia questions how they assign some values.

But using web hits alone strikes me as a pretty big contravening variable, as Bill suggests--people like me check sports scores hourly, and we don't mind trampling through academic websites to do it!! In this Webometrics list, The University of Illinois at Chicago outranks Ivies like Brown and Dartmouth. Now UIC is a fine school and getting better, but I would be surprised if a single one of the Times Higher's 1300 reviewers would agree with this placement!

 

This is a very nice list of ranked universities, but it appears to be limited to the top 20 universities worldwide and the top 10 universities by category.

Do you have another link of this ranking guide that lists more of the universities?

 

Here's the THES webpage:

http://www.thes.co.uk/

They have links to their rankings, but I think that they want you to register or subscribe or something.

 

Thanks for the link, Bill. You can register for a 14-day free trial and get access. From there you can download a .pdf file that contains the top 200 university rankings.

 

Sorry, forgot to link it. Actually, this is a Chinese university that simply reproduces the London list without requiring registration.

 

Hi fortiterinre:

To the best of my knowledge, it's the other way round: the ranking was compiled by the Chinese university.

I downloaded this ranking a while ago, and have seen it discussed in the news. Its methodolgy (with which I'm not acquainted with) has been said to be controversial.

As for the ranking mentioned as the theme of this thread, I think it doesn't reflect the true quality of each institution. UIUC is the 4th place, Cambridge is the 20th, and Dartmouth in the 99th? University of Hawaii better than Johns Hopkins and Duke? To say the least, this defies the institutions'reputations.

Joi

 

Hard to believe the University of Heidelberg is ranked so low--134.

 

The rankings discussed here attempt to rate universities based on the quality and influence of their academic research. Other rankings, like those of US News & World Report, are based on the quality and selectivity of undergraduate programs. So you can get different results.

For example, most Americans would probably agree that a Dartmouth degree is very prestigious. USN&WR rates Dartmouth #9 among national universities. And the Wall Street Journal recently rated Dartmouth #7 as a "feeder school" (e.g. an undergraduate program that "feeds" its graduates into top medical, law, or business schools).

Compared to other Ivy League schools, Dartmouth is relatively small, places a relatively high value on undergraduate teaching, and has a correspondingly lower emphasis on faculty research. These qualities are generally good for undergraduates, but they penalize Dartmouth in rankings based on research impact. For example, the Shanghai rankings place Dartmouth in the 101-152 class, along with schools like North Carolina State, University of Hawaii, and UMass. These are all perfectly good schools, but most Americans would probably be much more impressed by a degree from Dartmouth.

In fact, if you check the WSJ "feeder school" rankings, you find that many of the highest-rated undergraduate programs are at liberal arts colleges, not universities. For example, the WSJ ranks Williams as #5, behind only Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford; Amherst is #9 and Swarthmore #10. Colleges like Williams, Amherst, and Swarthmore are among the best possible places in America to get an undergraduate degree, yet they do not make the Shanghai "Top 500" list of World Universities.

 

Re: Re: World Universities’ Ranking on the Web

That would explain then why the first (and only as far as I have been able tose) French university is the University of Paris, number 177.

I don´t think these lists have much merit. The other list, made by Chinese experts, stated that SUNY Albany was a better institution than Georgetown, which is simply absurd.

 

Thank you for correcting me, joi--I am guiltily reminded of a line from the BBC comedy Absolutely Fabulous--"Could you please try to be a little less Western in your thinking for a change?!" Pardon my ass-umptions!

 

Couldn't find Capella, Argosy, Union, Walden, Touro or any of traditional DL schools. Athabasca and Charles Sturt were on the list but none of the american ones.

 

Re: Re: World Universities’ Ranking on the Web

Empire State College is #1931.

Some schools often mentioned here are LSU at #145, Heriot-Watt at #403, NSU at #536, Fort Hays at #998 and Regis U. at #1593.

 

THES Ranking

The Times Higher Education Supplement on Feb 2005

International comparisons The world's top arts and humanities universities



Rank Name Country Weighted
Score
1 Harvard University US 41.83
2 Oxford University UK 30.99
3 University of California, Berkeley US 29.86
4 Yale University US 27.68
5 Cambridge University UK 26.04
6 Princeton University US 22.14
7 Beijing University China 18.32
8 Columbia University US 17.7
9 Tokyo University Japan 14.42
10 London School of Economics UK 12.94
11 Sorbonne Paris France 12.75
12 Massachusetts Inst of Tech US 12.16
13 Michigan University US 11.89
14 University of Texas at Austin US 11.62
15 Kyoto University Japan 10.25
16 Oslo University Norway 9.12
17 National University of Singapore Singapore 9.12
18 School of Oriental and African Studies UK 9.12
19 Pennsylvania University US 9.12
20 Edinburgh University UK 8.93
21 Nanyang University Singapore 8.34
22 Sussex University UK 8.26
23 Copenhagen University Denmark 8.07
24 Heidelberg University Germany 7.99
25 National Autonomous University Mexico 7.99
26 Wisconsin University US 7.99
27 University of California, Los Angeles US 7.99
28 Chicago University US 7.8
29 Hong Kong University Hong Kong 7.48
30 Australian National University Australia 7.21
31 Chinese University Hong Kong Hong Kong 7.21
32 McGill University Canada 6.86
33 Georgetown University US 6.67
34 Vienna University Austria 6.08
35 Tsing Hua University China 6.08
36 Helsinki University Finland 6.08
37 Amsterdam University Netherlands 6.08
38 Madrid University Autonoma Spain 6.08
39 London University College UK 6.08
40 London Queen Mary University UK 6.08
41 St Andrews University UK 6.08
42 Utah University US 6.08
43 New York University US 6.08
44 Michigan State University US 6.08
45 Roma Tor Vergata University Italy 5.89
46 Virginia University US 5.89
47 University of British Columbia Canada 5.81
48 Stanford University US 5.81
49 Melbourne University Australia 5.22
50 Chulalongkorn University Thailand 5.22

Source: The Times Higher Education Supplement, and QS Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd

 

Rank Name Country Normalised
score Citations
per
paper
1 Harvard University US 200.00 9.53
2 London School of Economics UK 185.25 4.90
3 University of California, Berkeley US 163.26 6.83
4 Oxford University UK 157.00 5.20
5 Chicago University US 131.96 9.76
6 Stanford University US 122.99 8.59
7 Yale University US 110.10 7.59
8 Cambridge University UK 100.37 4.60
9 Massachusetts Inst of Tech US 100.02 9.33
10 National University of Singapore Singapore 82.14 3.10
11 Princeton University US 79.62 7.93
12 Melbourne University Australia 79.25 2.72
13 Cornell University US 67.54 5.78
14 Columbia University US 67.30 6.79
15 Tokyo University Japan 62.13 0
16 Australian National University Australia 59.82 3.39
17 Pennsylvania University US 51.93 7.60
18 University of California, Los Angeles US 47.37 7.42
19 Beijing University China 46.52 0
20 Erasmus University Rotterdam Netherlands 46.41 4.72
21 New York University US 44.96 6.30
22 McGill University Canada 42.96 4.34
23 New South Wales University Australia 42.03 3.49
24 Sydney University Australia 39.79 4.05
=25 London University College UK 39.53 5.51
=25 Manchester University & UMIST UK 39.53 4.14
27 Michigan University US 37.92 7.91
28 Monash University Australia 37.31 3.47
29 Warwick University UK 37.29 3.54
30 University of Toronto Canada 34.96 4.22
=31 Carnegie Mellon University US 34.31 8.99
=31 Sorbonne Paris France 34.31 0
33 Boston University US 33.14 6.56
34 Université Catholique de Louvain Belgium 32.64 3.96
35 Copenhagen University Denmark 32.40 2.93
36 Queensland University Australia 31.23 2.64
37 Duke University US 27.60 8.36
=38 Bonn University Germany 26.58 0
=38 Massachusetts University US 26.58 4.46
40 Hebrew University Jerusalem Israel 26.25 3.94
41 Edinburgh University UK 26.16 4.26
42 National Taiwan University Taiwan 26.10 0
43 Barcelona University Autonoma Spain 25.68 0
44 Kyoto University Japan 24.75 0
45 Hong Kong University Hong Kong 24.66 2.37
=46 Chulalongkorn University Thailand 24.34 0
=46 Indian Institutes of Technology India 24.34 4.86
48 Sussex University UK 24.25 5.18
49 ETH Zurich Switzerland 24.16 0
50 Macquarie University Australia 24.10 3.05
51 Humboldt University Berlin Germany 24.01 0
52 Aarhus University Denmark 23.99 0
=53 Bologna University Italy 23.92 0
=53 Stockholm School of Economics Sweden 23.92 6.87
=53 University of British Columbia Canada 23.92 4.93
56 University of Texas at Austin US 23.12 5.23
57 Hong Kong Uni of Sci & Tech Hong Kong 22.43 5.12
=58 Chinese University Hong Kong Hong Kong 22.10 3.23
=58 Michigan State University US 22.10 5.55
60 Johns Hopkins University US 21.60 6.35
61 City University Hong Kong Hong Kong 20.01 0
=62 Helsinki University Finland 19.84 4.50
=62 Toulouse University France 19.84 5.57
64 Bocconi Italy 19.75 0
65 Trinity College Dublin Ireland 19.60 0
=66 Heidelberg University Germany 19.36 0
=66 Illinois University US 19.36 5.16
68 Säo Paulo University Brazil 19.27 2.03
69 Wisconsin University US 18.88 5.35
=70 Fudan University China 17.77 0
=70 Nanyang University Singapore 17.77 0
=70 Shanghai Jiao Tong University China 17.77 0
73 Munich University Germany 17.69 0
74 University of California, San Diego US 17.54 8.65
=75 ESADE Spain 17.45 0
=75 Rochester University US 17.45 8.13
=77 Maastricht University Netherlands 17.36 4.70
=77 Purdue University US 17.36 5.26
79 North Carolina University US 16.88 5.15
80 Nagasaki University Japan 15.78 0
81 York University UK 15.69 4.38
82 Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris France 15.60 0
83 Hitotsubashi University Japan 15.54 0
=84 Nanjing University China 15.45 0
=84 RMIT University Australia 15.45 0
=84 School of Oriental and African Studies UK 15.45 0
=84 Seoul National University South Korea 15.45 0
=84 Texas A&M University US 15.45 4.70
=89 Florence University Italy 15.36 0
=89 Roma La Sapienza University Italy 15.36 0
91 Brown University US 15.21 6.38
=92 Minnesota University US 15.12 6.25
=92 Oslo University Norway 15.12 3.12
=92 Turin University Italy 15.12 0
=92 Vienna University Austria 15.12 0
96 Penn State University US 14.80 5.27
97 Lancaster University UK 13.60 4.15
98 Lahore University Pakistan 13.45 0
=99 Madrid University Complutense Spain 13.36 5.74
=99 Gothenburg University Sweden 13.36 3.39
=99 Durham University UK 13.36 3.85

Source: The Times Higher Education Supplement, QS Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd and Evidence Ltd

 

Re: Re: World Universities’ Ranking on the Web

UK Open University at #279. Did any other DL university come in higher? (these types of rankings are always a little iffy due to the criteria used, etc. but its always interesting)

TO (OU graduate

 

Re: Re: Re: World Universities’ Ranking on the Web

CSU Dominguez Hills, where I did my distance learning MA, came in at #885. That beat Yeshiva U. (901), Occidental College (977) and U. Paris 4 - Paris Sorbonne (1960). Bwa ha ha ha!

And good old San Francisco State hit a blistering 241, well ahead of Trinity College Dublin (283), the Ecole Normal Superieure (455) and the U. Witwatersrand (600).

Sounds accurate to me!

Ok, ok. This ranking captures the size of a school's web footprint, reflecting the number of worldwide webpages that mention a particular school or provide links to its pages. It probably is a crude measure of worldwide awareness and response.

But it doesn't really capture the quality of academics or the significance of research. To do that, you would have to actually read the webpages and carefully consider what they are saying about particular schools, departments and projects.

Like I said before, a single Federal Aviation Administration webapage might (in fact does) tell us more about the National Test Pilot School than a hundred advertising and PR pages tell us about Akamai University. A flood of sports news doesn't nesessarily tell us very much about a school's research prowess in classical archaeology.

And there's probably a language factor as well. The internet seems kind of weighted towards the English language. So schools that don't function in English and are impenetrable mysteries to the Anglophone mind aren't going to accumulate as much comment. They may get a tremendous positive response in their own language, but the raw volume of talk around the world is apt to be less.

That raises a question: Do these searches use all the non-Latin fonts? Do they capture alternative non-English spellings of universities' names? I mean there's lots of absolute gibberish going around the web that codes for Chinese characters if you have the software. There's Cyrillic, Arabic and a whole bunch of South and Southeast Asian scripts. (Zvavda's Thai, for example.) There's gotta be talk about individual universities in that material, but is it being captured and counted? If not, those foreign schools are gonna drop in the rankings.