Who creates the university rankings?

Question

Is there an actual board or is it just the Times newspaper, what do they take into account when creating the rankings? job opportunities, level of teaching etc.?

Answer 1

There are various rankings, done by everyone from U.S. News to the Financial Times to some university in China.  There is no board which does this.  Each ranking emphasizes different things.  Some are reputational, asking certain groups of people (alumni, employers, head of universities) which ones they think most highly of.  Others gather student input.  

Answer 2

If you're referring to the UK's Times Good University Guide listings, they look at several factors.

---Student satisfaction, measured by the National Student Survey

---Research, with data taken from the Research Asssessment Exercise

---Entry standards, using the universities average UCAS score.

---Student/staff ratio, data taken from the Higher Education Statistics Agency

---Library and Computing spending-average expenditure per student, also from the Higher Education Statistics Agency

---Facilities spending

---Good honours, the percentage of students graduating with a first or a 2:1 degree

---Graudate prospects, the percentage of UK graduates in graduate employment or further study, taken from HESA's survey of Destination of Leavers from Higher Education

---Completion, the number of students who complete their degree.

The Research Assessment Exercises are attempts by the UK government to assess the quality of teaching, with a standard scale from 1 to 5*. Undergraduate teaching quality is also assessed by the QAA (Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education).

Answer 3

The most popular one is done by the U.S. News & World Report, which is a weekly American news magazine. But of course there are others, like those of the times newspaper and others.

The main factor in those rankings is dependent on the quality and quantity of research projects done in the universities. Other factors are dependent on questionnaires, answered by the students (about the alumni, for example). And there are also factors such as size, awards etc.

http://www.telalit.com

Answer 4

i wouldnt waste my time with university league tables, especially ones created by Murdoch's rags