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Research Impact

What Is An International Ranking?

An international ranking is a system that evaluates and compares universities and colleges from different countries based on a variety of factors. One way to measure universities is to consider their publication activities from some large commercial databases, such as Web of Science and Scopus. Highly cited articles in the database influence the university’s standing in the rankings as well.

Major Rankings

Academic Ranking of World Universities: Shanghai Ranking

  • First published in 2003 by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, it is one of the earliest and most influential global university rankings.
  • Rankings are based on objective data such as alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, highly cited researchers, papers published in Nature and Science, papers indexed in major citation indices, and per capita performance.

 

World University Rankings: Times Higher Education

  • Published annually since 2004 by British publication Times Higher Education (THE), it ranks over 1,500 universities across 94 countries.
  • It uses 13 performance indicators such as teaching staff numbers, institutional income, research papers, research influence, and international collaboration.

QS World University Rankings

  • Published annually by British company Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). Started in 2004.
  • Uses six indicators - academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty/student ratio, citations per faculty, international faculty ratio, international student ratio.