[LINK] Monash & World University Rankings

[Tom Worthington]

On 2/6/22 13:45, Stephen Loosley wrote:

> ... Monash Uni, wherein they apparently rate 13th in Education in
> the world ...

My alma mater doesn't even make it into the list. Which brings up the
murky subject of how these lists are complied, and how they are used by
universities to attract students.

> “Monash University the world’s best (#1) for Pharmacy and 
> Pharmacology in QS rankings”
> 
> https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/monash-university-the-worlds-best-1-for-pharmacy-and-pharmacology-in-qs-rankings>
>
> 
“... demonstrates the excellence of our research and education in
> this field ...” Professor Gardner said. ...

The rankings are mostly based on research, not the quality of teaching. 
How well a university does research has nothing to do with the quality 
of teaching, if anything researchers make worse teachers.

These ranking systems are not a lot of use in Australia anyway, as
our national regulations prevent there being any bad universities.

To get us back on topic for Link, the "Webometrics Ranking of World
Universities" by Spanish researchers, uses open access data to rate more
universities more broadly. https://www.webometrics.info/en/Oceania/Australia

Webometrics includes the quality of the university website, and how much 
open access publishing they do, as well as papers published. Also they 
rank many more institutions (about 30,000), including some Australian 
TAFEs, as well as offshore campuses of Australian universities.

That said, Webometrics comes up broadly with similar results to other
ranking systems. The top unis come out top, but in a different order. Of
course this is still not a good way to rate teaching institutions, as
the "Excellence" measure is purely on papers published.

Monash University's main campus gets a Webometrics ranking of World 66,
Australia 5, with Impact 151, Openness 45, Excellence 31 (lower is
better): https://www.webometrics.info/en/search/Rankings/Monash

My alma mater, Athabasca University, is way down at World 1636, Canada
47. But at least it is in the list:
https://www.webometrics.info/en/search/Rankings/Athabasca

It beats the Canberra Institute of Technology, at World 9177, Australia
56:
https://www.webometrics.info/en/search/Rankings/Canberra%20Institute%20of%20Technology%20type%3Amundial

The lowest ranking institution in Australia is Kollel Beth HaTalmud
Yehuda Fishman Institute, at World 30106, Australia 190:
https://www.webometrics.info/en/search/Rankings/Kollel%20Beth%20HaTalmud%20Yehuda%20Fishman%20Institute

UNSW tried producing an "Aggregate Ranking Of Top Universities" by
combining different ranking systems. This made no sense, except to
boost UNSW's ranking.

I suggest Australia produce an education based ranking system. This 
would be developed completely objectively, and of course result in 
Australian institutions topping the list. ;-)
https://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/search/label/University%20Ranking


-- 
Tom Worthington, http://www.tomw.net.au