All of us often hear about people getting into top universities in the world. For many students, getting admission to those universities is a dream. But have you ever wondered about how these universities get such titles? Today we will be digging into the ways through which various publishing companies rank universities.
Amongst all university rankings, the most popular ones include QS University Ranking and the Times Higher Education University rankings. Both of them have different ways of calculating the university class. Now let’s take a deeper look at the factors that affect their ranking.
A. Learning Environment
Students can only learn their best when they have the best environment. A good study environment consists of better infrastructure, accessible learning materials, faculty, and many more. The Times Higher Education considers this factor as a major contributor to their ranking. However, the QS system doesn’t directly mention the learning environment during calculation. Instead, factors falling under the learning environment fall into it. They include the student-to-faculty ratio and the International student ratio.
B. Research
Those universities which offer extensive research programs are usually seen at the top of the list. For numerous reasons, research reports are an important part of academics. Thus the reputation of universities depends upon their research. Havard University alone was successful to publish more than 200 articles under Natural Science. There are other institutions like Stanford, MIT, Oxford also falls under the list.
c. Citation
Both QS ranking and the Times Higher Education calculate this factor to rank the universities. The ultimate test of research quality is its impact because all research aspires to be influential and significant. A higher number of citations means a higher impact on the study. Most scholars cite research papers when they have to discuss the pertaining field.
“We measure university research quality with a citation per faculty metric, taking the total number of academic citations in papers produced by a university in a five-year period.”
D. Industry Income
Commercial impacts of the universities also fall under the main factor while considering university rankings. The employment rate of graduates and their job placement create a reputation for the university. This represents how institutions prepare students for successful careers, and which institutions provide the most competent, innovative, and effective graduates.
Besides these factors, individual course rankings, subject resources, and location also affect the popularity of the universities. The ranking of the universities is sometimes fluctuating as other factors like political situations and the natural environment can affect the performance of their students.
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