University rankings provide a broad overview of academic institutions across multiple indicators, going well beyond what you’ll find on a university’s website. They can help you understand the world of higher education and identify opportunities to further your career aspirations.
However, rankings should never be the sole deciding factor when choosing a university. You must consider your personal goals, preferences and practical considerations in order to make a balanced decision that will lead to a fulfilling academic journey.
Each ranking system has its own methodology, criteria and indicators. The most popular include Times Higher Education (THE), Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and Quacquarelli Symonds Top Universities (QS). Each ranking has its own niche, strengths and weaknesses, but they all share a common foundation: the desire to evaluate universities by comparing them against others using standardized metrics.
Many of the metrics used in university rankings are based on data and information provided by institutions themselves, so the quality of their submission is crucial to their overall score. This is especially true for research-oriented universities. The quality of a university’s research output, impact and influence is often determined by the number of articles it publishes in influential journals.
But relying on journal rankings alone to assess the quality of a university’s research is problematic. It took decades to recognize the negative impact of bibliometrics on publishing; we should not let university rankings have similar detrimental effects on academic communities. An internal evaluation based on student satisfaction and feedback would be more effective.