A critical review on world university ranking in terms of top four ranking systems

Abstract

Now-a-days ranking of universities and institutions has become an appealing topic to study or research, and it has got wide attention to all over the world to recognize the top higher education institutes. Therefore, study on the strategies of the ranking system is vital to ensure the acceptability. There are number of strategies have been developed to rank higher education institutions worldwide. This Study has focused to critically evaluate the potential shortcomings of the top four widely accepted ranking systems. These are the Times World University Rankings, QS World University Rankings, Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and Webometrics Ranking. We critically reviewed and analyzed these four higher education ranking systems to identify potential shortcomings in their strategies. Based on our investigation, it was observed that none of these ranking systems can provide satisfactory evaluation in terms of their construct validity and other parameters related to disputation. Nevertheless, these ranking systems are the most popular for what they have been doing over the decades but unfortunately each and every one of them has to some extent lacking as far as ranking excellency is concerned. Lack of availability of data and publications through which ranking is done is one major obstacle faced to determine the authenticity of ranking systems. Overall observation of these four ranking systems reflects the fact that generic challenges include adjustment for institutional size, differences between average and extreme, defining the institutions, measurement of time frame, credit allocation, excellency factors as well as adjustment for scientific fields. Misinterpretation of measurement data is also responsible for some of the ranking disputes. We have proposed a number of recommendations that could address the identified inadequacy and considerably improve the ranking system as well as incorporate more participation of higher education institutes form developing world.