How the top 500 <scp>ARWU</scp> can provide a misleading rank

Zornić, Nikola

doi:10.1002/asi.23207

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…One university ranking that has attracted the attention of politicians, students, academics, and universities since its development is the Academic Ranking of World Universities, published yearly by the Institute of Higher Education of the Jiao Tong University in Shanghai. Putting aside a vast number of critiques this ranking received (for example Zornic et al, 2014), ARWU ranking should be accounted for being the pioneer in the creation of world university rankings. The ARWU ranking itself is quite specific.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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ARWU vs. Alternative ARWU Ranking: What are the Consequences for Lower Ranked Universities?

Maričić

Zornić

Pilcevic³

et al. 2017

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Decision makers and government representatives use numbers in the process of policy making in various spheres of life (Porter, 1995). Higher education is just one of thoe that saw the introduction of scores into its assessment methods through university rankings (Daraio & Bonaccorsi, 2017). Since 2003 and the first global university ranking, the university rankings have proliferated. The three world-acknowledged and most often analysed rankings are the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), the Times Higher Education (THE), and the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Ranking (QS). However, these rankings led to the creation of dozens separate rankings and subrankings: by region, by subject, by field and so on (Hazelkorn & Gibson, 2016). This information goes to show several facts: that there is a need for university rankings, that their scope is changing, and that university rankings have become a serious industry (Hazelkorn & Gibson, 2016). Therefore, the conclusion can be made that university rankings are here to stay (Nature News, 2007). Throughout the years, institutions that publish university rankings aimed to answer the needs of students, on one hand, and the needs of universities, on the other hand. One such case is the case of the Alternative ARWU ranking. Namely, the ARWU ranking tends to take into account the prestige of the institution by including indicators such as the number of alumni and staff who received the Nobel Prize or the Fields Medal. However, it is tough for an institution to receive any of them. On the other hand, if a university receives one of the two prestigious awards, its rank skyrockets in the next edition of the ranking. For example, the Toulouse School of Economics received its first Nobel prize in 2014 in Economic sciences and entered the ARWU ranking straight into group 201-300 in 2015. Similarly, the London School of Economics received its first Nobel Prize in 2010 and went from group 201-302 to group 102-150. Also, once a university has received the Nobel Prize or Fields Medal its rank position improves and stays constant for a certain period of time (Piro & Sivertsen, 2016). Many universities worldwide pointed such situations out to the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy and suggested an alternative ranking without the Award Factor (Alumni and Award indicators) (ARWU, 2014). Their valuable observation led to the creation of the Alternative ARWU ranking.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another publication that should be mentioned is the one by Zornic et al (2014). The main aspect of their research was to scrutinize the indicator PUB.…”

Section: Several Years Latermentioning

confidence: 99%

ARWU vs. Alternative ARWU Ranking: What are the Consequences for Lower Ranked Universities?

Maričić

Zornić

Pilcevic³

et al. 2017

ManageFon

Self Cite

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“…Among the indicators, one finds “Alumni”—the number of alumni, and “Awards”—the number of staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals. These two indicators have attracted significant attention and generated extensive discussion among authors (Docampo & Cram, ; Safón, ; Zornic, Markovic, & Jeremic, ). In determining which of the ARWU's indicators will most likely bring about a Top 500 position, officials from many universities concluded that the Nobel Prize and Fields Medal indicators may prove challenging (Zornic et al., ).…”

Section: Uncertainty and Sensitivity Of The Official Arwu Ranking (20mentioning

confidence: 99%

ARWU ranking uncertainty and sensitivity: What if the award factor was Excluded?

Dobrota

2015

Asso for Info Science & Tech

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The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) uses six university performance indicators, including "Alumni" and "Awards"-the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals. These two indicators raised doubts about the reliability of this ranking method because they are difficult to cope with. Recently, a newsletter was published featuring a reduced ARWU ranking list, leaving out Nobel Prize and Fields Medal indicators: the Alternative Ranking (Excluding Award Factor). We used uncertainty and sensitivity analyses to examine and compare the stability and confidence of the official ARWU ranking and the Alternative Ranking. The results indicate that if the ARWU ranking is reduced to the 4-indicator Alternative Ranking, it shows greater certainty and stability in ranking universities.

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“…The top 100 universities are ranked, and the remaining 400 are arranged by alphabetical order into four clusters, each cluster consisting of 100 universities. Since ARWU list includes less than 2% of all universities it is considered the best quality indicator of the university (Zornić et al, 2014).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From these criteria, approximately 50% belong to the number of papers published in journals on SCIe and SSCI lists, the number of citations and the number of results per researcher which has a predominant influence on the position of UB on ARWU list (Zornić et al, 2014).…”

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confidence: 99%

The University of Belgrade on ARWU list - Part I: The impact of individual faculties on the achieved position using PROMETHEE-GAIA method

2017

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How the top 500 ARWU can provide a misleading rank

Cited by 11 publications

References 4 publications

ARWU vs. Alternative ARWU Ranking: What are the Consequences for Lower Ranked Universities?

ARWU vs. Alternative ARWU Ranking: What are the Consequences for Lower Ranked Universities?

ARWU ranking uncertainty and sensitivity: What if the award factor was Excluded?

The University of Belgrade on ARWU list - Part I: The impact of individual faculties on the achieved position using PROMETHEE-GAIA method

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