Abstract
International rankings are an important communication tool that allows the comparison of Universities according to combinations of different parameters, appropriately weighted. The causes of the widespread diffusion of this information tool are to be found in the process of internationalization of the university system and in the massive increase in the demand and supply of diversified university education. The purpose of the rankings is to allow external subjects to have synthetic and comparable information, for immediate reading, on a university institution. However, often the information rate of the ranking is not combined with a careful examination of the performance indicators that distinguish it and its weighting. The aim of this study is to deepen the methodological aspects of the main global rankings, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of these tools, while comparing statistical positions to those of the universities that occupy the top place in the rankings.
The contribution is the result of joint reflections by the authors, with the following contributions attributed to V. Ricci (chapters 1 and 2), to P. Perchinunno (chapters 3 and 4).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Altbach, P.G.: The globalization of college and university rankings. Change Mag. High. Learn. 44(1), 26–31 (2012)
Altbach, P.G.: The dilemmas of ranking. Int. High. Educ. 42, 2–3 (2006)
Bastedo, M.N., Bowman, N.A.: College rankings as an interorganizational dependency: establishing the foundation for strategic and institutional accounts. Res. High. Educ. 52(1), 3–23 (2011)
Hazelkorn, E.: Rankings and the battle for world-class excellence: institutional strategies and policy choices. High. Educ. Manage. Policy 21(1), 55–76 (2009)
Hazelkorn, E.: Reflections on a decade of global rankings: what we’ve learned and outstanding issues. Eur. J. Educ. 49(1), 12–28 (2014)
Huisman, J., Currie, J.: Accountability in higher education: bridge over troubled water? High. Educ. 48(4), 529–551 (2004)
Marginson, S., van der Wende, M.: To rank or to be ranked: the impact of global rankings in higher education. J. Stud. Int. Educ. 11(3/4), 306–329 (2007)
Salmi, J., Saroyan, A.: League tables as policy instruments: uses and misuses. High. Educ. Manage. Policy 19(2), 31–68 (2007)
Williams, R.: Methodology, meaning and usefulness of rankings. Aust. Univ. Rev. 50(2), 51–58 (2008)
Marginson, S.: University rankings and social science. Eur. J. Educ. 49(1), 45–59 (2014)
Billaut, J., Bouyssou, D., Vinke, P.: Should we believe the Shanghai ranking? an MCDM view. Scientometrics 84(1), 237–263 (2010)
Schmid, F., Schmidt, R.: Multivariate extensions of spearman’s rho and related statistics. Stat. Prob. Lett. 77(4), 407–416 (2007)
Aguillo, I.F., Bar-Ilan, J., Levene, M., Ortega, J.L.: Comparing university rankings. Scientometrics 85, 243–256 (2010)
Diaconis, P., Graham, R.L.: Spearman’s footrule as a measure of disarray. J. Roy. Stat. Soc. Ser. B (Methodol.) 39, 262–268 (1977)
Dwork, C., Kumar, R., Naor, M., Sivakumar, D.: Rank aggregation methods for the Web. In: Proceedings of the 10th World Wide Web Conference, May 2001, Hong-Kong, pp. 613–622 (2001)
Dill, D.D., Soo, M.: Academic quality, league tables and public policy: a cross national analysis of university ranking systems. High. Educ. 49, 499–533 (2005)
Frey, B.S., Rost, K.: Do rankings reflect research quality? J. Appl. Econ. 13(1), 1–38 (2010)
Proulx, R.: Higher education ranking and leagues tables: lessons learned from benchmarking. High. Educ. Europe 32(1), 71–82 (2007)
Saisana, M., d’Hombres, B., Saltelli, A.: Rickety numbers: volatility of university rankings and policy implications. Res. Policy 40(1), 165–177 (2011)
Taylor, P., Braddock, R.: International university ranking systems and the idea of university excellence. J. High. Educ. Policy Manage. 29(3), 245–260 (2007)
Tofallis, C.: A different approach to university rankings. High. Educ. 63(1), 1–18 (2012)
Federkeil, G.: Some aspects of ranking methodology. The CHE ranking of German universities. High. Educ. Europe 27(4), 389–397 (2002)
Fidler, B., Parsons, C.: World university ranking methodologies: stability and variability. High. Educ. Rev. 40(3), 15–34 (2008)
Meredith, M.: Why do universities compete in the ratings game? an empirical analysis of the effects of the U.S. news & world report college rankings. Res. High. Educ. 45(5), 443–461 (2004)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Perchinunno, P., Ricci, V. (2019). International Rankings: A Tool for Comparing Universities Through the Construction of Weighted Indicators. In: Misra, S., et al. Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2019. ICCSA 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11622. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24305-0_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24305-0_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-24304-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-24305-0
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)