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Opening the black box of QS World University Rankings

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  • Mu-Hsuan Huang

Abstract

In the era of globalization, the trend of university rankings gradually shifts from country-wide analyses to world-wide analyses. Relatively high analytical weightings on reputational surveys have led Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings to criticisms over the years. This study provides a comprehensive discussion of the indicators and weightings adopted in the QS survey. The article discusses several debates stirred in the academia on QS. Debates on this ranking system are presented in the study. Firstly, problems of return rate, as well as unequal distribution of returned questionnaires, have incurred regional bias. Secondly, some universities are listed in both domestic and international reputation questionnaires, but some others are listed only in the domestic part. Some universities were evaluated only by domestic respondents, limiting their performance of the ranking results. Thirdly, quite a few universities exhibit the same indicator scores or even full scores, rendering the assessment questionable. Lastly, enormous changes of single indicator scores suggest that the statistic data adopted by QS Rankings should be further questioned. Copyright The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Mu-Hsuan Huang, 2012. "Opening the black box of QS World University Rankings," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 21(1), pages 71-78, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:rseval:v:21:y:2012:i:1:p:71-78
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/reseval/rvr003
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    Cited by:

    1. Wei-Chao Lin & Ching Chen, 2021. "Novel World University Rankings Combining Academic, Environmental and Resource Indicators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Lutz Bornmann & Werner Marx, 2020. "Thomas theorem in research evaluation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 123(1), pages 553-555, April.
    3. Massucci, Francesco Alessandro & Docampo, Domingo, 2019. "Measuring the academic reputation through citation networks via PageRank," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 185-201.
    4. Julian D. Cortes & Liliana Rivera & Katerina Bohle Carbonell, 2021. "Mission Statements in Universities: Readability and performance," Papers 2104.07438, arXiv.org.
    5. Maričić Milica & Bulajić Milica & Radojičić Zoran & Jeremić Veljko, 2019. "Shedding Light on the Doing Business Index: a Machine Learning Approach," Business Systems Research, Sciendo, vol. 10(2), pages 73-84, September.
    6. Vicente Safón, 2013. "What do global university rankings really measure? The search for the X factor and the X entity," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 97(2), pages 223-244, November.

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