Application of analytic hierarchy process method for ranking of universities

Abstract

Decision making is a process of choosing and identifying the best alternative among available options to achieve the desired purpose in many areas of human activity. Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) has been a fast growing decision making tool for many years. It has taken its role in different application areas due to being useful and attractive for solving complex real-world problems. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is one of the mostly used powerful MCDM techniques for formulating complex decisions. The aim of this paper is to conduct AHP for ranking of five United Kingdom universities. Four important criteria, and namely, teaching, research, citations and international outlook are used to rank the universities. The comparison matrix is used to compare criteria as well as alternatives with respect to each criterion. Consistency index and consistency ratio are calculated by using eigenvalues to check the consistency of comparison matrix.