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Should you believe in the Shanghai ranking? An MCDM view

Author

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  • Jean-Charles Billaut

    (LIFAT - Laboratoire d'Informatique Fondamentale et Appliquée de Tours - UT - Université de Tours - INSA CVL - Institut National des Sciences Appliquées - Centre Val de Loire - INSA - Institut National des Sciences Appliquées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Denis Bouyssou

    (LAMSADE - Laboratoire d'analyse et modélisation de systèmes pour l'aide à la décision - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Philippe Vincke

    (CODE - CODE - ULB - Université libre de Bruxelles)

Abstract

This paper proposes a critical analysis of the "Academic Ranking ofWorld Universities", published every year by the Institute of Higher Education of the Jiao Tong University in Shanghai and more commonly known as the Shanghai ranking. After having recalled how the ranking is built, we first discuss the relevance of the criteria and then analyze the proposed aggregation method. Our analysis uses tools and concepts from Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM). Our main conclusions are that the criteria that are used are not relevant, that the aggregation methodology is plagued by a number of major problems and that the whole exercise suffers from an insufficient attention paid to fundamental structuring issues. Hence, our view is that the Shanghai ranking, in spite of the media coverage it receives, does not qualify as a useful and pertinent tool to discuss the "quality" of academic institutions, let alone to guide the choice of students and family or to promote reforms of higher education systems. We outline the type of work that should be undertaken to offer sound alternatives to the Shanghai ranking.

Suggested Citation

  • Jean-Charles Billaut & Denis Bouyssou & Philippe Vincke, 2009. "Should you believe in the Shanghai ranking? An MCDM view," Working Papers hal-00877050, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00877050
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-00877050
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Domingo Docampo, 2013. "Reproducibility of the Shanghai academic ranking of world universities results," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 94(2), pages 567-587, February.
    2. Jean-Charles Billaut & Denis Bouyssou & Philippe Vincke, 2010. "Should you believe in the Shanghai ranking?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 84(1), pages 237-263, July.
    3. Fernando García & Francisco Guijarro & Javier Oliver, 2021. "A Multicriteria Goal Programming Model for Ranking Universities," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-17, February.
    4. Saisana, Michaela & d'Hombres, Béatrice & Saltelli, Andrea, 2011. "Rickety numbers: Volatility of university rankings and policy implications," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 165-177, February.
    5. Kuang-hua Chen & Pei-yu Liao, 2012. "A comparative study on world university rankings: a bibliometric survey," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 92(1), pages 89-103, July.
    6. Gasser, Patrick, 2020. "A review on energy security indices to compare country performances," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    7. J�rôme Kasparian & Antoine Rolland, 2012. "OECD's ‘Better Life Index’: can any country be well ranked?," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(10), pages 2223-2230, June.
    8. Julia Melkers & Agrita Kiopa, 2010. "The Social Capital of Global Ties in Science: The Added Value of International Collaboration," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 27(4), pages 389-414, July.
    9. Csató, László & Tóth, Csaba, 2020. "University rankings from the revealed preferences of the applicants," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 286(1), pages 309-320.

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