U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities Ranking
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In 2014, U.S. News & World Report published its Best Global University Ranking. Its ranking methodology is based on 10 different indicators that measure universities' academic performance and reputations.[1] U.S. News & World Report's inaugural Best Global Universities ranking[2] was launched on 28 October 2014, and it was based on data and metrics provided by Thomson Reuters, and are thus methodologically different from the criteria traditionally used by U.S. News to rank American institutions. Universities are judged on factors such as global research reputation, publications and number of highly cited papers.[3] U.S. News also publishes region-specific and subject-specific global rankings based on this methodology.
Inside Higher Ed noted that the U.S. News is entering into the international college and university rankings area that is already "dominated by three major global university rankings": the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, the Academic Ranking of World Universities, and the QS World University Rankings.[4] U.S. News's chief data strategist Robert Morse stated "We're well-known in the field for doing academic rankings so we thought it was a natural extension of the other rankings that we're doing."[4]
Morse pointed out that the U.S. News as "the first American publisher to enter the global rankings space", given Times Higher Education and QS are both British, while the Academic Ranking of World universities is Chinese.[4]
While it is the first American global ranking, criticisms include that Thompson Reuters rankings have less bias and are therefore greatly preferred over US News Rankings. Bias in US News Rankings is towards large universities over scaling methods as quantity is not always quality, and an American university focus instead of a more international focus. For example, in terms of scaling results, four extremely large population University of California campuses including San Francisco and San Diego are ranked above a prestigious Ivy League research university like Cornell University.
References
- ^ http://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/articles/methodologys
- ^ "Best Global Universities". U.S. News & World Report.
- ^ Haynie, Devon. "U.S. News Releases Inaugural Best Global Universities Rankings". U.S. News & World Report.
- ^ a b c "'U.S. News' to Issue New Global University Rankings". Inside Higher Ed.