Showing posts with label University rankings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label University rankings. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

15/3/16: Times Higher Education Europe Rankings: Not Too Kind for Ireland


Times Higher education 2016 rankings for European Universities, published recently here are an interesting read.

We have:

  • TCD at 78th place, below TU Dresden, U of Liverpool, and a bunch of other not too 'premier league' schools. Average showing, given it is 78th across Europe.
  • UCD in 88th place. Below Eidhoven UofTech, U of Konstanz, U of Barcelona et al. Good news, it is close to TCD, creating something of a cluster. Bad news is: no Irish Uni in top50 for Europe.
  • Third highest ranked school in Ireland is apparently NUI Galway (edging out UC Cork) which is ranked somewhere between 131st and 140th places. Not in top100, thus, despite the fact these rankings are for Europe alone.
  • Fourth highest ranked is a specialist school - the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland - a stronger position for the school, given it has no broader remit of, say NUIG. It also ranks somewhere between 131st and 140th.
  • Fifth is UC Cork in the group of Unis ranked 181st through 190th in Europe. It makes top 200, thus, but only by a small margin.
  • Sixth is NUI Maynooth which manages to make top 200 in Europe by squeezing into the ranking group between 191st and 200th. 
Overall, not a pretty picture, to be honest. Yes, rankings are not the only metric worth pursuing. Not even the main metric (in my opinion). But rankings do determine students demand for schools, and they determine faculty recruitment. And they do reflect a range of assessment metrics that do matter. And worse, they are all starting to converge on a conclusion that Irish Universities have suffered a long-term set back to their competitiveness during the years of the crisis.

Don't blindly trust the rankings. But don't ignore them either.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

16/12/15: Only 2/5 Global Ranking Methodologies Show an Irish Uni in Top 100


Universities rankings are a hazardous undertaking. Too many moving metrics, too many subjective inputs, too many egos fighting each other and too many euros and dollars and rupees and pounds etc at stake from funding sources. So one really should take them with a grain of salt and in comparatives look at a number of rankings across the board.

So here's a set of simple facts:


US NWR rankings:
QS rankings:


Wikipedia rankings:

Note: although QS and Wikipedia rankings for Trinity are relatively close, two methodologies are quite different. In terms of perceived robustness, ARWU and THE, are seen as top quality rankings, with QS and USNWR methodologies being usually seen as 'intermediate' quality and Wikipedia rankings being, err... a bit off-the-wall. 

Still, net effect is: 3/5 global universities rankings give Ireland zero places in top 100. No matter how you spin this, it ain't great...

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

28/10/2014: US News & WR: Global University Rankings


US News & World Report published their first global Universities rankings: http://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/rankings

And the numbers are pretty much disastrous for Ireland:


No Irish University in top 100. No Irish University in top 1-199. Best ranked Irish university is 210th (TCD). Only one Irish university in top 250. Only two Irish universities in top 300. Only 3 Irish universities in top 500...

Here are the 'neighbourhoods' for TCD:

 For UCD:
 And for UCC:

Nothing else to comment...

See other rankings links here: http://trueeconomics.blogspot.ie/2014/08/2182014-shanghai-academic-rankings-2014.html

Friday, May 16, 2014

16/5/2014: Three Points on Irish Universities Performance


Three slides on Irish Higher Education state of play from my presentation yesterday at the Cork IT (many thanks to the CIT for their hospitality):