Applying To

This is a really common question for international students: ‘which rankings should I prefer, the Guardian or the Times?’. Its important because the results can vary so much between the two, especially for subject rankings. So how do you know which university is best.

Well the first thing to say is that it shows the weakness of the rankings system. No ranking is perfect and you should never choose a university based solely on its rankings, choose according to course structure, university environment and interaction with university personnel amongst other factors.

Still, to answer the question I generally prefer to look at the Times rankings. I think for international students it produces better results and more often agrees with the perception of universities that I already have.

Whenever you look at a rankings you should look in detail at the criteria they use to judge the universities/departments. It varies from ranking to ranking. If the parameters they use are ones you consider important then you should value the results, if not, then the ranking results are not for you.

So what do I mean, well the Guardian uses 7 parameters in all and 3 of them I really question their value, they are:

1. % of students satisfied with teaching
2. % of students satisfied with feedback
3. Value added score

Well, firstly the first 2 criteria are very similar and give for my mind too much weight to student surveys. Student surveys sound great but in practice I don’t think they work well in rankings. When you look at the results you will often see that less selective universities (= less good) have high student satisfaction, whilst top universities can score poorly. The reason I believe is that students in good universities are often more demanding.

The third factor of value-added is one which cannot really apply to international students and one which I’m not too sure how its is measured.

The Times uses only 4 criteria:

1. Student Survey
2. Entry Level
3. Graduate Prospects
4. Research Quality

OK, so No.1 has the same problems as above but the others are all sound indicators. Particularly Entry Level (this is the grades needed to enter in to the departments’ undergraduate degree) and Research Quality which is really another way of saying how prestigious the department is.

So more often than not I prefer the results from the Times but that’s not to say that I agree with them all the time and certainly not to say they are ideal for international students. In fact I think the Times World Ranking is probably a better rankings for overseas students but that is for another day…..

Kieran!

It was fantastic, the way you expained was great and gave me a great way of evaluating the universities.

Another ranking is this one http://www.arwu.org which ranks the universities in different countries globally.

If you take a look at the top 100 universities you will see universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, Imperial College(All the rankings have these universities as their tops) but we go for universities such as Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield; these three universities are ranked globally under 100, but is it reliable?

Furthermore, we go to this link http://www.arwu.org/ARWU-FIELD2008/ENG2008.htm
As you see it has ranked universities in the field of Engineering and as you see the ranking is totally different from the Times.

Now the question is which is more accurate? Which is more valid among academic organizations?

Its not a question of which is more accurate. They are all completely accurate. You must look at their criteria and decide which you think are more important to you. The Engineering ranking you gave is a general Engineering/Computer Science rather than a specific EEE ranking given by the Times however.