台大
英國泰晤士報11月8日公布全球大學排名排名本校排名102名較去年進步6名
英國泰晤士報2007世界大學排行上週公布，本校排名102名，較去年進步六名；泰晤士報的排名以「國際聲望」為主，本校是全台唯一擠進前兩百大的學校，且已連續三年往前推進，由前年的114名、去年的108名，進步到今年的102名。
另外由財團法人高等教育評鑑基金會首度自辦的2007世界大學科研論文質量評比排行榜同時公布，本校排名185名。本校圖書資訊系黃慕萱教授分析，臺大論文發表數量不少，但被引用的次數偏低，是造成評比排名落後的主因。
目前各國所做的世界大學排名方法不一，如英國泰晤士報係根據同儕審查、企業雇主評量、國際教師數、國際學生數、師生比及教師平均論文被引次數等六項指標測算。上海交通大學的「世界大學學術排名」，則用諾貝爾獎及費爾茲獎獲獎人數、發表在Nature及Science兩期刊的篇數、高被引學者數等量化數字作為排名依據。然而泰晤士報高等教育增刊將評鑑重心放於同儕評論，易受主觀意識影響，尤其是問卷形式的大學排名給分，容易成為大學聲望評比，而忽略大學的實際表現，不符合以客觀角度評量大學之目的。上海交大的「世界大學學術排名」採用的各項指標中，諾貝爾獎、高被引學者與Nature、Science的文章等指標追求的都是非凡的研究成果，尤其行是諾貝爾獎，並非大多數學校可以達到的目標，因此無法反應大多數學者的研究表現。而在高被引學者數指標中，各學科領域高被引學者數資料來源為ISI出版的HighlyCited.com資料庫，然該網站資料更新僅到1999年，造成評比數據不夠新穎的問題。另外，規模數據取得相當困難，且每個學校對於學術人員的定義歧異，容易引起衡量大學規模效度的爭議。換言之，目前多種評鑑方式可能有主觀性過高、評比指標過於高標準、資料過於老舊、數據取得不足等，亦都是亟待克服之問題。
The battle to rise up the ranks
Are world university rankings good for the prestige of third-level institutions or simply a PR exercise
Click here for European and world rankings for universities
Irish universities put in good performances on the global front in the recently published THES-QS World University Rankings. Some colleges rose more than 100 places in the space of a year, and one narrowly failed to make the top 50. On the face of it this was a good result for a small island but just how important are such lists?
Eight of Ireland’s third-level institutions featured in the fourth annual ranking of the world’s top 500 universities.
Trinity College Dublin (TCD) climbed to 53rd from 78th last year, following a concerted campaign by the college to hit the top 50.
John Hegarty, the provost of TCD, said he was surprised to have come so close to the target, believing it would take a few more years to get there. Hegarty insists, though, that the push towards the top has not had any detrimental effect on undergraduate learning. He said student-staff ratios at TCD ensure that all undergraduate students benefit from one-to-one support from lecturers and tutors while studying.
“The campaign had several fronts,” Hegarty said. “We employ the best minds in the world to educate our students, while simultaneously advancing knowledge. Research and education are two sides of the same coin. If there is excellence in research, there is excellence in education and learning”. He added: “People are taking these lists very seriously. We live in a competitive world, and we need to be pushing all the time.
Hugh Brady, the president of University College Dublin (UCD), said university league tables are a reality but shouldn’t be the driving force behind the way colleges operate. He said that UCD had just passed through a period of intense change that was challenging for all concerned, and that its ranking of 177th was extremely “gratifying”.
Describing it as a “great boost”. Brady said high rankings greatly improve a college’s chances of recruiting students from overseas, but admitted that there was a “natural tension” between undergraduate learning and so-called fourth-level university activity, the commercialisation of research work. “It’s something we have have to watch very carefully,” he conceded.
Dublin City University (DCU) saw its ranking rise by 141 places to 300th, the biggest improvement by any college. Ferdinand von Prondzynski, the president of DCU, said staff were pleasantly surprised by their performance, and the college hopes for an equally significant jump next year.
“DCU has given extra weight to research funding in the last couple of years and that is reflected in this year’s rankings. We jumped far more than we had expected to,” von Prondzynski said.
He said international league tables are useful when trying to secure foreign investment for research projects. But he warned
that significant increases in government funding are needed. “We’ve been very good at providing high-quality education at a low cost base, but there are limits to that. Unless there is a serious reappraisal of core funding, the quality of undergraduate learning will start to suffer.”
Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) saw its position improve too, moving from 370th to 351st. But Frank McMahon, DIT’s director of academic affairs, said the college had little control over the outcome. “More than half of the allocated marks are given by peer review and by recruiter review. All we can do is our best and hope we will be reviewed positively,” he said. “It’s heartening to see that we are well-received, though, and it certainly has an impact on our attractiveness to both students and staff.”
DIT began to widen its research remit about five years ago in a bid to attract international students. It hopes they will soon account for 10% of its numbers. McMahon acknowledged that foreign students represent a cash injection into the college, through their fees, but added that they also enrich college life. “International students add diversity to the learning environment,” he continued, “and can share their wealth of knowledge from their own systems.”
The Department of Education said it did not “generally comment on the compilation of league tables for schools or other educational institutions”, but added that it had made a “massive investment” across the third-level sector in the past 10 years.
The department said that ¤13 billion will be invested over the next six years to cover day-to-day funding of colleges, and that recurring departmental funding of third-level research stands at ¤94m. “Continuing to improve third-level education and developing ‘fourth-level Ireland’ is central to building a better economy and society,” the department said.
But Sean Barrett, senior lecturer in economics at TCD, said university league tables are little more than an exercise in public relations and said the move to increase the number of overseas students is set to deprive Irish students of college places.
“They are closing doors on Irish 18-year-olds, by selling places to foreign students,” he said. “They are actively excluding the sons and daughters of the taxpayers who pay their wages. Somebody should tell them to step back into the lecture hall.”
Why 4/10 is a great score for Britain's universities
Cambridge and Oxford are the second best universities in the world according to the latest rankings, and British universities are closing the gap with those in the United States.
Oxford and Cambridge share the number two spot with Yale, with Harvard ranked number one in the latest league tables from The Times Higher Education Supplement.
The findings will bring cheer to the higher education sector in Britain at a time of growing concern among vice-chancellors and employers that British universities will lose students to better-financed institutions abroad and that business will then follow them with jobs and investment.
They are also likely to add to pressure from vice-chancellors for a rise in the £3,000 annual tuition fee cap at British universities to ensure that they have sufficient funding to compete on the world stage effectively John Hood, the vice-chancellor of Oxford, said that the success of the university in the rankings – Oxford had moved up – had been achieved “despite the fact that its resources are considerably more limited than its international counterparts, particularly in the US”.
Wendy Piatt, the director-general of the Russell Group of elite research-led universities, said: “We recognise that our universities must continue to rise to the challenges of increasing global competition and increasing investment by other countries in their universities if we are to retain our status as truly world-class institutions.”
Professor Rick Trainor, the president of Universities UK, representing vice-chancellors, added: “Our competitors are increasingly marketing themselves more aggressively so it is vital that the UK remains among the foremost destinations for international students and staff.”
Britain now has four universities rated among the top ten in the list of the best 100, according to the rankings.
University College London rose from 25th position last year to ninth in the table, entering the top ten for the first time and rising farther than any other major institution. Imperial College, London also improved its standing this year, rising from ninth place to fifth.
Harvard, whose endowment of $35 billion (£16.6 billion) is roughly equal to the combined annual funding for all English universities, tops the table, but its lead over its closest rivals has fallen from 3.2 to 2.4 points. Nunzio Quacquarelli, the managing director of QS, the careers and education group that compiled the rankings, said: “In an environment of increasing student mobility, the UK is putting itself forward as a top choice for students worldwide.
“They are taking a closer look at the quality of faculty, international diversity and, of course, to the education they will receive.”
The rankings are based on a survey of academics and companies employing graduates, international student and staff numbers and research citations. The factors were weighted and transformed into a scale giving the top university 100 points and ranking the others as a proportion of that score.
The presence of so many American and British universities at the top of the rankings reflects the dominance of English as the world language for academic publishing.
Top class
1 Harvard University US
2 University of Cambridge UK
2 University of Oxford UK
2 Yale University US
5 Imperial College, London UK
6 Princeton University US
7 California Institute of Technology (Caltech) US
7 University of Chicago US
9 University College London (UCL) UK
10 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) US
People need to read the methodology of THES before commenting. The movement to a Z based criteria score meant that LSE being top of the international student criteria did not lead to it having disproportionate weight. in that criteria leading to an inflated global ranking. It is a specialist institution. which is reflected in it being 3rd world wide for social sciences, but not being able to compete with comprehensive universities.
More importantly, the bias which is the Ivy League has held long enough. American Universities have had a big propaganda machine (look what a good one did for LSE in such a short time). Propaganda does not make a university better, it just diverts funds and LSE (53rd out of 56th in the UK for teaching) suffered, like some US Universities.
However, research scores are skewed heavily this time. Not at Purchasing Power Parity, with the US Dollar weakening, UK institutions got a skewing boost from a strong pound. Same research, just worth nominally more.
Vishal Mirpuri, UCL,London,
1. Korea Univ
2. Harvard
ABC, Seoul, Seoul /Korea
The LSE not in the top 50???? How can an institution go from being safely in the top 20 for several assessments consecutively to jumping out of the top 50?? Surely the change in criteria does not truely reflect reality. Also
UCL ahead of MIT? Stanford not in the top 10??
Tony, Manchester,
Can it really be that no non-English speaking university can make this grade?
Mark Runacres, Delhi,
the list ...to my opinion.
1.Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) US
this should be the first!
2.University College London (UCL) UK
this should be the second.
believe me.
9. University of Cambridge UK
10.Harvard University US
so is correct.
gianni, munich, germany
Harvard above Oxbridge?!! You're having a laugh!!
margeret, london,
Second EQUAL? Are you sure the list wasn't just made up to rankle alumni of Both Places?
Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK