IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i24p13873-d703235.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Novel World University Rankings Combining Academic, Environmental and Resource Indicators

Author

Listed:
  • Wei-Chao Lin

    (Department of Information Management, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan
    Center for Institutional Research, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan
    Department of Thoracic Surgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, Taoyuan 333423, Taiwan)

  • Ching Chen

    (Department of Information Management, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan)

Abstract

World university rankings are regarded as an important tool to assess higher education quality. There are several media sources that publish world university rankings every year. These ranking results are mainly based on academic indicators, including research and teaching, with different weightings. However, some of these academic indicators are questionable, which affects the objectivity of the ranking results. In addition, conducting more medical-related studies could enhance the research impact scores. Some universities that devote themselves to enhancing these academic indicators lose sight of their original development goals and directions. To make the rankings more comprehensive, it is necessary to consider different viewpoints in the assessment. In other words, the research question of this paper is: whether considering different kinds of indicators can provide better ranking results? Therefore, in this paper, we introduce a novel ranking approach that combines academic, environmental, and resource indicators based on the Borda count method. The top 100 world universities from the Academic Ranking of World Universities, QS World University Rankings, Times Higher Education World Universities, and U.S. News & World Report are chosen for the analysis. The comparisons between the original and new rankings show that many universities improve in the rankings, while some universities from particular countries drop in the rankings due to the scores obtained from the environmental and resource indicators.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:24:p:13873-:d:703235
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/24/13873/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/24/13873/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Valero, Anna & Van Reenen, John, 2019. "The economic impact of universities: Evidence from across the globe," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 53-67.
    2. Nikola Zornic & Aleksandar Markovic & Veljko Jeremic, 2014. "How the top 500 ARWU can provide a misleading rank," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 65(6), pages 1303-1304, June.
    3. Oscar N. Ventura & Alvaro W. Mombrú, 2006. "Use of bibliometric information to assist research policy making. A comparison of publication and citation profiles of Full and Associate Professors at a School of Chemistry in Uruguay," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 69(2), pages 287-313, November.
    4. Daraio, Cinzia & Bonaccorsi, Andrea & Simar, Léopold, 2015. "Rankings and university performance: A conditional multidimensional approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 244(3), pages 918-930.
    5. Bruno S. Frey & Katja Rost, 2010. "Do rankings reflect research quality?," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 13, pages 1-38, May.
    6. Bouyssou, D. & Marchant, T., 2010. "Consistent bibliometric rankings of authors and of journals," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 365-378.
    7. Andrew Gelman & Christian Hennig, 2017. "Beyond subjective and objective in statistics," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 180(4), pages 967-1033, October.
    8. Mike Thelwall & Kayvan Kousha, 2015. "ResearchGate: Disseminating, communicating, and measuring Scholarship?," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 66(5), pages 876-889, May.
    9. Peter Emerson, 2013. "The original Borda count and partial voting," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 40(2), pages 353-358, February.
    10. Philip G. Altbach & Jamil Salmi, 2011. "The Road to Academic Excellence : The Making of World-Class Research Universities [El camino hacia la excelencia académica : la constitución de universidades de investigación de rango mundial]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2357.
    11. Domingo Docampo & Lawrence Cram, 2014. "On the internal dynamics of the Shanghai ranking," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(2), pages 1347-1366, February.
    12. Milan Dobrota & Marina Dobrota, 2016. "ARWU ranking uncertainty and sensitivity: What if the award factor was Excluded?," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 67(2), pages 480-482, February.
    13. Marina Dobrota & Milica Bulajic & Lutz Bornmann & Veljko Jeremic, 2016. "A new approach to the QS university ranking using the composite I-distance indicator: Uncertainty and sensitivity analyses," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 67(1), pages 200-211, January.
    14. 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.
    15. Philip Cooke & Loet Leydesdorff, 2006. "Regional Development in the Knowledge-Based Economy: The Construction of Advantage," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 5-15, January.
    16. 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.
    17. Brown, William O., 2001. "Sources of funds and quality effects in higher education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 289-295, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Olga A. Myzrova & Tatyana V. Goryacheva & Olga V. Sysoeva & Victor V. Sysoev, 2023. "The Effect of the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem of Universities on the Innovative Activity in Russian Regions," Economies, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-19, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Antonio Fernández-Cano & Elvira Curiel-Marin & Manuel Torralbo-Rodríguez & Mónica Vallejo-Ruiz, 2018. "Questioning the Shanghai Ranking methodology as a tool for the evaluation of universities: an integrative review," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(3), pages 2069-2083, September.
    2. Dima Alina Mihaela & Argatu Ruxandra & Rădoi Mireille, 2024. "Performance Evaluation in Higher Education – A Comparative Approach," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 18(1), pages 2453-2471.
    3. Teodoro Luque-Martínez & Ignacio Luque-Raya, 2024. "Spanish scientific research by field and subject. Strategic analysis with ARWU indicators," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(9), pages 5265-5285, September.
    4. Andrea Bonaccorsi & Cinzia Daraio, 2014. "Beyond university rankings ? Generating new indicators on European universities by linking data in open platforms," DIAG Technical Reports 2014-12, Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza".
    5. 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.
    6. Zornić, Nikola & Dobrota, Marina & Jeremić, Veljko, 2016. "Measuring the Stability of University Rankings in the Field of Education," Proceedings of the ENTRENOVA - ENTerprise REsearch InNOVAtion Conference (2016), Rovinj, Croatia, in: Proceedings of the ENTRENOVA - ENTerprise REsearch InNOVAtion Conference, Rovinj, Croatia, 8-9 September 2016, pages 294-301, IRENET - Society for Advancing Innovation and Research in Economy, Zagreb.
    7. Milica Maricic & Jose A. Egea & Veljko Jeremic, 2019. "A Hybrid Enhanced Scatter Search—Composite I-Distance Indicator (eSS-CIDI) Optimization Approach for Determining Weights Within Composite Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 497-537, July.
    8. 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.
    9. Frenken, Koen & Heimeriks, Gaston J. & Hoekman, Jarno, 2017. "What drives university research performance? An analysis using the CWTS Leiden Ranking data," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 859-872.
    10. Stefania De Medici & Patrizia Riganti & Serena Viola, 2018. "Circular Economy and the Role of Universities in Urban Regeneration: The Case of Ortigia, Syracuse," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-26, November.
    11. Bonaccorsi, Andrea & Cicero, Tindaro, 2016. "Nondeterministic ranking of university departments," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 224-237.
    12. Olga Bogdanov & Veljko Jeremiæ & Sandra Jednak & Mladen Èudanov, 2019. "Scrutinizing the Smart City Index: a multivariate statistical approach," Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci/Proceedings of Rijeka Faculty of Economics, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business, vol. 37(2), pages 777-799.
    13. Delbianco Fernando & Tohmé Fernando, 2023. "What is a relevant control?: An algorithmic proposal," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4643, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
    14. Silvia Sacchetti, 2013. "Motivational resilience in the university system," Chapters, in: Roger Sugden & Marcela Valania & James R. Wilson (ed.), Leadership and Cooperation in Academia, chapter 8, pages 107-127, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Domingo Docampo & Lawrence Cram, 2019. "Highly cited researchers: a moving target," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 118(3), pages 1011-1025, March.
    16. Mayo, Deborah, 2024. "Error statistics, Bayes-factor Tests and the Fallacy of Non-exhaustive Alternatives," OSF Preprints tmgqd, Center for Open Science.
    17. Klaus Wohlrabe, 2018. "Einige Anmerkungen zum FAZ-Ökonomenranking 2018," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 71(20), pages 29-33, October.
    18. Müller, Harry, 2012. "Die Zitationshäufigkeit als Qualitätsindikator im Rahmen der Forschungsleistungsmessung," Discussion Papers of the Institute for Organisational Economics 1/2012, University of Münster, Institute for Organisational Economics.
    19. Patrick Lehnert & Madison Dell & Uschi Backes-Gellner & Eric Bettinger, 2024. "The Effect of Postsecondary Educational Institutions on Local Economies: A Bird’s-Eye View," NBER Working Papers 32679, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Asuamah Yeboah, Samuel & Antwi Boasiako, Ama, 2024. "Beyond the Classroom: Quality Assurance in Developing Nations," MPRA Paper 122486, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 13 Oct 2024.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:24:p:13873-:d:703235. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.