Edouard Mathieu. Head of the Benchmarking Center. Invest in France Agency. * ARWU: Academic Ranking of World Universities 2005. A few remarks on ARWU ...
Edouard Mathieu Head of the Benchmarking Center Invest in France Agency
* ARWU: Academic Ranking of World Universities 2005
Some remarks on methodological issues
is a ARWU usefulThe difficulties are idea. honestly documentedby prof. Liu. Some will be hard to overcome.
Among difficulties: theattribution of citationsin (example Paris: Paris6 or UPMC, careers in CNRS laboratories, College de France, Polytechnique…). Does Shanghai Jiao Tong University benefit from a partner in France to help with the French attributions?
Nobel and Fields medals are skewed indicators: only 12 universities score > 50 for alumni ; 305 universities score 0 ; 372 universities score 0 at awarded staff. Beyond the top 10, these variables do not discriminate academic performances.
Ranking. Paris6 (Université Pierre et Marie Curie, UPMC) ranks46, UT Austin (The University of Texas at Austin) ranks36. Why?
Enrollment. Paris630,000and medical students); (science UT Austin50,000 (architecture, liberal arts, business, law, natural sciences, engineering, pharmacy, nursing…)
Employees. Paris6 :4,000 faculty and 3,000 staff; UT Austin : 3,000 faculty and 18.000 staffmuseum, library, (laboratories, sports…). UT Austin enjoysbig budget and managing powers.
Most indicators are absolute numbers, and soARWU favors big size. Is bigger better than smaller? No universal answer.
Paris (as other French cities) boasts many specialized universities, schools and organizations. Thisdispersion may send the wrong message through ARWU. Some experiences are made to join forces for better visibility: Paris Tech…
Prof. Liu intends to increase the weight of size (per capita criteria). This willmake ARWU more neutral on the size question. But comparable evaluations of faculty and staff numbers will not be easy to elaborate.
Same difficulties with thespecialization / concentration management alternativesand corresponding rankings.
ARWU should be a helpfultool for mobility(both ways).Is it? Probably a significant impact: 2000 visitors on the Web a day (Chinese? From developed countries?) Probably less impact on the top excellent studentswho receive direct offers and information from universities and schools. Impact onprofessors / researchersnational and international mobility ? (which would boost future impact on student mobility).
Top 500 Universities list gives a ranking of countries for research : US(1st), UK, Japan, Germany, Canada,France(6th), Sweden, … China(19).How it compares with rankings in the “France attractiveness scoreboard”? Proportion of international students enrolled in tertiary education: Australia, Belgium, UK, Germany,France, USA, Netherlands, Spain, Japan… R&D expenditure/GDP (average 20012003): Japan, USA, Germany,Franceand Belgium (ex.), Netherlands, UK…