The Times Higher Education Supplement

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The discussion revolves around the credibility and criteria of university rankings, particularly those from The Times Higher Education Supplement. Participants express skepticism about the numerical scores, questioning how schools like Caltech can be rated significantly lower than Cambridge in science. There is a consensus that rankings can vary greatly based on the criteria used, leading to differing results. Some contributors highlight the importance of comparing similar institutions, arguing that liberal arts colleges and technical schools cannot be directly compared. The conversation also touches on the preference of Israeli researchers for U.S. universities over British ones, suggesting that funding and reputation may influence these choices. Overall, the thread emphasizes the complexity and potential biases in university rankings.
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loop quantum gravity said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times_Higher_Education_Supplement

i have to go so i don't have time, i tell you my thoughts about it later, in the meantime you can say what do you think of these rankings? , cam univ is first in science...

well, why shouldn't it be at the top of the list?


i don't understand those numerical scores. is caltech really half the school that cambridge is in science? :rolleyes:
 
In every USA Today poll, Georgia Tech is always in the top ten for all of its engineering programs, frequently in the top 5, so I have a hard time believing that all of a sudden it isn't even a factor. I also have a hard time believing that a grade inflation beast like Harvard would be the "best school in the world".

My verdict is that this ranking is for the most part bunk.
 
To be asked of any such ranking... what are the criteria? and what weights are assigned to those criteria? and why? (In the page linked above, one finds http://www.duranhcp.com/world-rankings-16pages.pdf .)


[cynical]
It seems to me that if you ask the "right" questions and measure the "right" variables, you can get the "right" answers.
[/cynical]
 
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Top schools are all difficult to enter...

By the way, could anyone post a link to rankings of different schools in the world on such a particular field as nature and life history, molecular evolution, computational biology or artificial life...? Is there such a link ?

(Oh, no no, no artificial intelligence)
 
The Times Good University Guide, from which the rankings are taken, has been a long-standing, well respected and well recognised series of tables of performance. I'm not sure that it's available online for free.

All tables of rankings do, however, often give differing results based on the different criteria which they use to score the entrants.
 
brewnog said:
The Times Good University Guide, from which the rankings are taken, has been a long-standing, well respected and well recognised series of tables of performance. I'm not sure that it's available online for free.

It is: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,716,00.html.
 
Emieno said:
By the way, could anyone post a link to rankings of different schools in the world on such a particular field as nature and life history, molecular evolution, computational biology or artificial life...? Is there such a link ?
The closest I can think of is here (post #4) : https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=76031

There are more specializations there that I have not linked to, that may be accessed by changing "xy" in the url www. stat.tamu.edu/~jNewton/nrc_rankings/areaxy.html
 
I tend to think that you have to compare two like things in a poll like this. Comparing a liberal arts school to a technical school would be like trying to compare Van Gogh's genius to Einstein's. There's not a valid point of comparison since they affect two different and likely disjoint groups.
 
  • #10
MalleusScientiarum said:
I tend to think that you have to compare two like things in a poll like this. Comparing a liberal arts school to a technical school would be like trying to compare Van Gogh's genius to Einstein's. There's not a valid point of comparison since they affect two different and likely disjoint groups.

Exactly. That's why the full rankings list excellence in each individual subject, both for learning and for research.


Oh, thanks for that Nylex.
 
  • #11
robphy said:
[cynical]
It seems to me that if you ask the "right" questions and measure the "right" variables, you can get the "right" answers.
[/cynical]

Statistics don't lie, but statisticians do.
 
  • #12
  • #13
Gokul43201 said:
The closest I can think of is here (post #4) : https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=76031

There are more specializations there that I have not linked to, that may be accessed by changing "xy" in the url www. stat.tamu.edu/~jNewton/nrc_rankings/areaxy.html
Thanks gokul43201, :wink:
 
  • #14
Brad Barker said:
well, why shouldn't it be at the top of the list?


i don't understand those numerical scores. is caltech really half the school that cambridge is in science? :rolleyes:
well, here in israel all of the researchers (most of them), post-grads opt to learn in the prestigious us universities, and seldomly if ever you hear of an israeli mathematician,physicist who learns or wants to learn at british universities such as oxbridge academics.
it just reassures me that cam univ is not inferior (in science) from the top us univs.
 
  • #15
loop quantum gravity said:
well, here in israel all of the researchers (most of them), post-grads opt to learn in the prestigious us universities, and seldomly if ever you hear of an israeli mathematician,physicist who learns or wants to learn at british universities such as oxbridge academics.
it just reassures me that cam univ is not inferior (in science) from the top us univs.

wow, that's weird. maybe it has something to do with funding issues.
:confused:

...but i sincerely doubt that cambridge and oxford don't have sufficient funding.

maybe the israeli researchers just really like taco bell! :-p
 
  • #16
but don't get the wrong impression, there were physicists at england (like yakir aharonov known for aharonov-bohm effect) but as far as i know not at oxbridge (he learned at bristol univ).
 

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