Size, Internationalization, and University Rankings: Evaluating and Predicting Times Higher Education (THE) Data for Japan

Abstract

International and domestic rankings of academics, academic departments, faculties, schools and colleges, institutions of higher learning, states, regions, and countries are of academic and practical interest and importance to students, parents, academics, and private and public institutions. International and domestic rankings are typically based on arbitrary methodologies and criteria. Evaluating how the rankings might be sensitive to different factors, as well as forecasting how they might change over time, requires a statistical analysis of the factors that affect the rankings. Accurate data on rankings and the associated factors are essential for a valid statistical analysis. In this respect, the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings represent one of the three leading and most influential annual sources of international university rankings. Using recently released data for a single country, namely Japan, the paper evaluates the effects of size (specifically, the number of full-time-equivalent (FTE) students, or FTE (Size)) and internationalization (specifically, the percentage of international students, or IntStud) on academic rankings using THE data for 2017 and 2018 on 258 national, public (that is, prefectural or city), and private universities. The results show that both size and internationalization are statistically significant in explaining rankings for all universities, as well as separately for private and non-private (that is, national and public) universities, in Japan for 2017 and 2018.

A data analytics approach for university competitiveness: the QS world university rankings

“…A prediction exercise has already been carried out using THE rankings with data from 2011 to 2016, doing a regression analysis using these years of evolving indicators [13]. Another work was elaborated specifically for universities in Japan with data from THE, predicting its ranking position from university size and internationalization [14]. Finally, a study of English institutions hypothesized that an evaluating system based on citations would be highly correlated to one based on peer evaluation.…”

Local Explanations of Global Rankings: Insights for Competitive Rankings

“…Multiple scenarios were considered to explore the impact of variable changes for a specific university in any ranking system using the proposed performance index. McAleer et al [40] evaluated the effects of the number of full-time-equivalent students (i.e., size) and the percentage of international students (i.e., internationalization) on academic rankings for private and public universities by developing linear regression models. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings dataset was used to illustrate the positive relationship between the size and internationalization for Japanese universities in 2017 and 2018.…”

The Comparative Analysis of Rankings in South African and Nigerian Higher Education Systems

“…The need to draw students from other countries is crucial because it further improves rankings which the universities use as leverage to attract better staff and campaign for more resources, thus creating a virtuous cycle in the process. According to McAleer et al (2019), the process of ranking in higher education generally begins with data collection from prevailing sources of data, site visitations, institutional studies, and research. Following the collection of data is the standardization of indicators and weighting from carefully chosen variables, the selection of variable quantities and type from the information gathered.…”