Rankings
WSU and rankings
Rankings of post-secondary institutions continue to grow. While rankings initially focused on leading national research institutions, a second wave of rankings expanded the pool of institutions from a few hundred to several thousand. Likewise, metrics with a narrow focus on reputation and interest to prospective students expanded to a broader set of metrics considering academic performance, research capacity, and post-graduate outcomes. Surveys may utilize subjective peer opinion surveys, and/or objective data collected systematically across institutions.
Below we list several major ranking schemes, with brief descriptions of their methodologies, strengths, weaknesses, and WSU’s performance.
Global rankings
ARWU rankings are published by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy each year in mid-August. More than 2,500 institutions are ranked, and the top 1,000 are published. WSU is currently in the top 20% of those ranked, and the top 10% of US universities. ARWU also publishes a Global Ranking of Academic Subjects, including over 1,800 institutions in five broad fields and 54 subjects.
CWUR is an educational consultancy based in Ras al Khaimah (UAE); they have published rankings since 2012, most recently ranking almost 20,000 institutions. WSU is currently in the top 1.5% of those ranked. CWUR also publishes rankings by subject, purely based on publications and citations in important journals for the field, in the 277 disciplines identified using Clarivate’s data set.
Leiden has ranked institutions since 2006 on bibliometric standards but refuses to impose a particular ranking model, instead providing Clarivate data on publications, number of most cited works, and proportion of most cited works, plus some measures of collaboration and diversity. Default rankings are based on counts of publications.
NTU first published annual rankings in 2007, focusing on long- and short-term measures of journal article impact using SCI/SSCI abstracted data. NTU most recently ranked more than 1,300 institutions. WSU is currently in the top 20% when adjusted for faculty size. We use
QS is an educational services provider based in the UK. Their ranking, usually published in June, is half reputation surveys, part citations, plus student/faculty/ international ratios. QS ranked more than 2,400 institutions and published rankings for over 1,500. WSU is currently in the top 20% of those ranked.
Times Higher Ed is a UK periodical having a series of annual surveys since 2004, their primary line being the WUR, which ranks over 3,100 institutions. The WUR ranking is 1/3 reputation surveys, several collected metrics of teaching and research quality, citation impact, and international outlook. WSU currently is in the top 18% of those ranked. New rankings are released mid-October.
USNWR comes late to world rankings, so has had to alter its domestic methodology to compete. They combine reputation and bibliometric data from Clarivate in 13 indicators. They rank over 2,500 universities (292 in the US). WSU is currently in the top 16% of those ranked, and the top 100 institutions in the US.
National rankings
Forbes’ rankings highlight institutions for the best value of education, including an education at a great price, higher earners after graduation, and graduates who become successful entrepreneurs and influential leaders.
HERD is an annual census of research activity at US universities conducted by the National Science Foundation. It is the standard place to identify American universities with significant R&D expenditures, by discipline or by funding source. Data are submitted in January for the previous fiscal year, with results published the following November. Over 900 institutions are ranked; WSU is currently in the top 10%.
Niche ranks best colleges on academic, admissions, financial, and student life data collected from the U.S. Department of Education as well as student and alumni reviews. Their surveys ask about everything from residence halls to food to faculty, safety, and diversity. Niche employs an atypical ranking methodology with significant weight on student surveys.
The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse (WSJ) College Rankings are based on 12 performance indicators:
- Salary impact (33%)
- Years to pay off net price (17%)
- Graduation rate impact (20%)
- Learning opportunities (4%)
- Preparation for career (4%)
- Learning facilities (4%)
- Recommendation score (4%)
- Character score (4%)
- Opportunities to interact with different backgrounds (5%)
- Ethnic diversity (1.7%)
- Inclusion of students with lower family earnings (1.7%)
- Inclusion of students with disabilities (1.7%)
Washington Monthly’s annual College Guide and Rankings rates schools based on what they do for the country. They rank four-year schools (national universities, liberal arts colleges, baccalaureate colleges, and master’s universities) based on their contribution to the public good in three broad categories: social mobility, research, and providing opportunities for public service.
U.S. News states, “Students and their families should have as much information as possible about the comparative merits of the educational programs at America’s colleges and universities.” The data U.S. News gathers on colleges and the rankings of the schools are collected from universities. They also include a proprietary scoring of peer assessment. Each school’s rank within its group of peer institutions is based on the same set of quality measures.