Monday, December 22, 2008

Twenty countries are included in the THES-QS ranking of the World's Top-100 universities

The AllAboutUni.com analysis is based on the two major international rankings of the WorldҀs Top-500 universities: the Academic Ranking of World Universities compiled by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Times Higher Education and Quacquarelli Symonds. The ARWU is produced by a public university in China and THES-QS is produced by a private company in the United Kingdom.

The overall overlap of the two rankings is 67%, meaning that 67 of the World's Top-100 universities appear in both the ARWU ranking and THES-QS ranking. This means there are 33 universities (one in three) in each of the rankings that do not appear in the other list.

English-speaking countries dominate both rankings
Roughly 70% of the World's Top-100 universities are located in English-speaking countries (United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland). For the ARWU, this figure is 72% and for the THES-QS it is 68%.

Universities in the US dominates both rankings
Universities located in the US dominate both of the World's Top-100 university rankings: 54% for the ARWU and 37% for the THES-QS. There are fewer US universities in THES-QS, a difference that is mainly related to the inclusion of more Asian/Pacific universities in the THES-QS ranking (see below).

It is interesting to note that among the World's Top-25 universities, the position of the US is even more pronounced: 72% in ARWU and 56% in THES-QS

UK consistently number two
The UK is consistently ranked second in both the ARWU (11% of the World's Top-100 universities) and THES-QS rankings (17%). This contribution is even higher for the World's Top-25 universities: 12% for the ARWU and 24% for the THES-QS .

THES-QS is more international than ARWU
Twenty countries are included in the THES-QS ranking of the World's Top-100 universities compared to 15 countries for the ARWU. The THES-QS ranking includes more non-US universities: 63% universities compared to 46% in the ARWU.

THES-QS has many more Asian/Pacific universities
There are more than twice as many Asian/Pacific universities in the THES-QS ranking (22%) of the World's Top-100 universities than in the ARWU ranking (8%). Whilst only three Asian/Pacific countries are represented in ARWU (Japan (4), Australia (3) and Israel (1)), there are eight countries in THES-QS (Australia (7), Japan (4), Hong Kong (3), China (2), Singapore (2), South Korea (2), Israel (1) and New Zealand (1)).

Conclusions
The AllAboutUni.com assessment found that the THES-QS ranking is more international than the ARWU ranking (it has many more Asian/Pacific universities). The assessment also found that 70% of World's Top-100 universities are located in English-speaking countries (especially in the US and UK).

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