Background information for rankings

The various rankings are developed via different methodologies and for different target audiences. Complex contexts are reduced to a small amount of numbers and indicators in order to come up with a ranking list.

Methodological approach

Rankings can be categorised in the following ways:

• national / international
• subject ranking / ranking the whole university
• multidimensional ranking / aggregate value based on indicators
• ranking list (league tables) / ranking groups

Rankings are controversial

... and are associated with a number of methodological difficulties:

• Different publication cultures in the different scientific disciplines are not taken into consideration.
• A strong focus on journal publications and citation numbers in the Web of Science favours universities with strong natural science programmes in the English speaking world.
• Rankings do not account for the distinctiveness of national systems of higher education.
• The weighting of the numbers based on university size is not always carried out, which leads to additional distortions.
• The rankings combine past performance with current evaluations (i.e. Nobel prize winners as alumni).
• A lack of transparency regarding reputation surveys: Who is asked? Response rate?
• Manipulation issues concerning the data provided by the ranked universities