Academic Ranking of World Universities 18 October 2012 Prof. Nian Cai LIU Director, Center for World-Class Universities Dean, Graduate School of Education Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Let a Thousand Flowers Blossom UNESCO Global Forum Rankings and Accountability in Higher Education, May 2011, Paris. Although there are many limitations and problems, ranking is useful to a variety of stakeholders in many different ways and is becoming one of the major quality assurance tools. Whether universities and other stakeholders agree with rankings or not, they are clearly here to stay. The key issue then becomes how to improve rankings and wisely use rankings.

Outline The History The History The Methodology The Methodology The Results The Results The Future The Future

HISTORY

C hinese Dream of WCU World-Class University (WCU) is a dream for generations of Chinese. Its not only for pride, but also for the future of China. Since 1990s, Chinese government has launched several initiatives for research universities. The best-known one is specially designed to build WCU (985 Project). Many top Chinese universities have setup their strategic goals as WCU. Most of them have also set time tables for reaching the goals.

Questions About WCU What is the definition and criteria for a WCU? How many WCU should be there in the world? What are the positions of top Chinese universities in the world? How can Chinese universities improve themselves to reach the goal of WCU? (From benchmarking to ranking)

Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) Find out the positions of top Chinese Universities in the world higher education system Provide one source of information for the global comparison of universities

Academic Ranking of World Universities by Broad Subject Fields (ARWU-FIELD) Five Broad Subject Fields Natural Sciences and Mathematics (SCI) Engineering/Technology and Computer Sciences (ENG) Life and Agriculture Sciences (LIFE) Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy (MED) Social Sciences (SOC) 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

Academic Ranking of World Universities by Subject Fields (ARWU-SUBJECT) Five Subject Fields Mathematics Physics Chemistry Computer Sciences Economics / Business 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

METHODOLOGY

Selection of Universities Any university that has any Nobel Laureates, Fields Medals, Highly Cited Researchers, or papers in Nature or Science Universities with significant amount of papers indexed by Citation Indexes of Thomson Number of universities scanned > 2000 Number of universities actually ranked 1200 Number of universities published Top 500 Top 200 ARWU ARWU-FIELD ARWU-SUBJECT

Criteria and Weights of ARWU CriteriaIndicatorCodeWeight Quality of Education Alumni of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals Alumni10% Quality of Faculty Staff of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals Award20% Highly cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories HiCi20% Research Output Papers published in Nature and Science*N&S*20% Papers indexed in Science Citation Index- expanded and Social Science Citation Index PUB20% Per Capita Performance Per capita academic performance of an institution PCP10% *: For institutions specialized in humanities and social sciences such as London School of Economics, N&S is not considered and the weight of N&S is relocated to other indicators

Definition of Indicator: Alumni The total number of the alumni of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals. Alumni are defined as those who obtain bachelor, Master's or doctoral degrees from the institution. Different weights are set according to the periods of obtaining degrees. The weight is 100% for alumni obtaining degrees in , 90% for alumni obtaining degrees in , and so on, and finally 10% for alumni obtaining degrees in If a person obtains more than one degrees from an institution, the institution is considered once only.

Criteria and Weights of ARWU-FIELD AlumniAwardHiCiPUBTOPFund SCI10%15%25% / ENG//25% LIFE10%15%25% / MED10%15%25% / SOC10%15%25% /

Criteria and Weights of ARWU-SUBJECT AlumniAwardHiCiPUBTOP Mathematics10%15%25% Physics10%15%25% Chemistry10%15%25% Computer Science 10%15%25% Economics / Business 10%15%25%

16 Main Sources of Data Nobel laureates: Fields Medals: Highly Cited Researchers: Papers published in Nature and Science: Papers indexed in SCIE and SSCI:

RESULTS

IndicatorAlumniAwardHiCiN&SPUB Top Average Performance by ARWU Indicators

Top 100 Universities by Region

Top 500 Universities by Region

Top 500 Universities by Country (43)

ARWU Features

ARWU Impact

FUTURE

Updating ARWU ARWU Top 500 annually ARWU-FIELD Top 200 annually ARWU-SUBJECT Top 200 annually

Improving ARWU Including more international scientific awards - possibly one from each subject area Including more internationally renowned scholars - plenary speakers etc. Including more internationally renowned alumni - executives in top companies and intl. organizations Including more types of research outputs for social sciences - books, etc.

Diversifying ARWU Ranking of specialized universities - medicine, engineering, etc. (classification) Ranking by regions of special interests - Eastern Europe, South America, South Asia, etc. Ranking emphasizing per capita performance - comparable definition and data of academic staff Ranking considering history, budget, size, etc.

Profiling Research Universities Building databases of world research universities with as many indicators as possible (GRUP) Profiling and interactive analysis of world research universities at institutional level Benchmarking with peer research universities in the world at faculty/departmental level Annual report of world-class universities

Contributing to Ranking Community Theoretical research on ranking to better understand the phenomenon of ranking Professional services through IREG involvement and conference organization IREG Stakeholders Guidelines on Academic Rankings