Times (of London) Higher Education Supplement

My post above only has 4 Australian Universities in top 40, not 5.

Thanks

The times does a ranking of UK universities which is pretty good and also breakdowns for all the major subjects. It generally is respected and accurate, in the sense that the top 5 are the real top 5, although as would be expected the arguments are about some place being in 4th place rather than 3rd and so on. As for this international ranking, I didn't even know they did one. I personally don't think you can compare all the universities in the world in any measurable way, one look at a few different rankings will show how differing they are in their conclusions. That being said, the times are right in saying Melbourne uni is the best in australia. Why does it even matter though?

I've seen a fair few rankings and it's the first time I see this one (times World as opposed to UK).

It's an excuse to sell paper. It's not possible to compare universities which offer different diplomas in different subjects at different levels to different students in different markets which have different needs and different cultures etc. You get my point.

Only highly standardised international degrees (MBA?) can be compared in such a way, although even those are far from showing the whole picture.

There seems to be a ridiculous biase towards english-speaking countries.

Yeah, the English speaking bias is the main criticism of global rankings. A lot of their weighting is based on citation counts and other research variables. Most French or Japanese stuff for example doesn't get translated unless it is significant meaning that unis such as the sorbonne end up way lower down than the university of birmingham(a shit uni in the UK that I once saw higher than global 50th place in some ranking).

Things in America are so America-centric with regard to higher education that I did a little research and this is what I found. I still can't understand how Australia (20 million people) can produce so many highly ranked schools even if the rankings may be skewed, biased, etc.

In my opinion, the Financial Times rankings are the most realistic and are also global. Most other rankings are not credible.

http://rankings.ft.com/rankings/mba/rankings.html

Nevermind...just noticed that you are talking about undergrad.

On a side note, the Sorbonne is highly regarded outside of France since it was founded in 1257 (wikipedia). Within France though, it has a few good courses but apart from that it's "you're average university". Reasons being lack of selectivity due to French rules and relatively low budget.

I mean, I don't even see Michigan on this cute little list at all...it lists Michigan state.....but not UofM....so what does that say?

My issue is that its a reputable paper putting out the rankings. Why does the paper put out rankings that aren't comprehensive enough to justify the huge undertaking in tabulating a WORLDS RANKINGS of institutions.

Is there a happy medium of comparison at the undergrad level?

They do all sorts of rankings, best graduate recruiter, best place to work etc. In fact I think it's a sister company that does it, not the newspaper itself. They are always very clear about how they came to their results. At the end of the day they never claim they are some super scientific be all and end all results, just take them with a pinch of salt.

the top australian students sit very well with the top students in the ivys etc. i for one knew an australia who rejected a place at oxford to go to an aussie uni. i reckon because it is so isolated, most students decide to stay in australia rather than go to the US/UK for their uni - and this does not even take into account the cost factor of going overseas

Good point ermen.

Not many people can afford to go overseas for 3-4 yrs and study an expensive degree. The cost of living overseas (renting, eating everything) could well cost you some $52,000 if you live pretty frugally and hardly go out shopping and so on. Then you have the cost of the degree. Finally the cost of travelling adds another $3000 or so pa. S

So unless your parents' joint income is above $150,000, you'd struggle to send a kid from Australia to Harvard.

Thos rankings are retarded. Purdue, UC San Diego, UIUC, Boston U are better than Brown, Dartmouth, Georgetown, and Vanderbilt? Give me a break