- The University , Research
- 17/09/2020
TU/e performs well in (yet) another ranking
TU/e is ranked fifth in the first edition of the World University Research Ranking (WURR), which emphasizes multidisciplinary research and - international - collaboration with partners both within and outside the academic community. A nice result, but the question remains what exactly a ranking like this measures, and why there is a need for yet another new ranking?
Leading American university MIT is ranked at the top of the WURR, followed by Technical University of Denmark and EPFL Lausanne - both of which are partners of TU/e within the EuroTech Universities Alliance. Number four in the ranking is Carnegie Mellon University, a private research university based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The other Dutch universities high in the raking are Wageningen University, TU Delft and the University of Twente in 8th, 20th and 31st place respectively. Evidently, the new ranking favors universities which focus on technology.
Obviously, a spot in the top 5 is a great result for TU/e, even if it’s in a new ranking that still needs to earn its reputation. “It’s good to see that the university’s strength, multidisciplinary collaboration with its partners both within and outside the university, is recognized,” rector Frank Baaijens responded. Still, the university hasn’t widely publicized the result - only a short message on LinkedIn, but no major article on the TU/e website.
Swamp
This is understandable when you realize that the world of academic rankings is a complex swamp of competing views and commercial or national interests. Ludo Waltman is professor of Quantitative Science Studies at Leiden University and coordinator of the most important Dutch ranking for universities: the CWTS Leiden Ranking. “There are perhaps a hundred such rankings worldwide,” he says as he puts the matter into context. “The most important of these are the Times Higher Education, QS and Shanghai rankings. I don’t immediately see what this World University Research Ranking from Singapore has to add. Perhaps only that it emphasizes multidisciplinarity; that is rather innovative.”
The question, however, is whether the WURR actually measures what it claims to measure. “They look at publications in journals that cover multiple disciplines. Experience tells me that the choice of the disciplines is quite arbitrary. There is a consensus among experts that multidisciplinarity can’t really be expressed in a single number.” More generally, it doesn’t make that much sense to designate one institution the ‘best’ university. “That’s why the CWTS Leiden Ranking doesn’t have an overall score, instead, all our numbers are divided into specific indicators.”
Business models
Waltman can only speculate as to why this new ranking was created. “Commercial motives often play a role; the major rankings in particular have a very sophisticated business model and sell advertisements, events or detailed data.” Also, governments sometimes believe that the existing rankings are unfavorable to the local universities. Not entirely without reason, the researcher from Leiden believes. “Using the exact same yardstick for all universities is debatable. Countries might have good reasons to focus on specific disciplines, because these are relevant locally.” The fact that there are several rankings isn’t necessarily a bad thing, he believes. “That puts the value of the individual rankings somewhat into perspective.”
The fact that TU/e scores high in the area of collaboration in research, particularly with the industry, is known to Waltman too. “TU Eindhoven does indeed have a high score on the lists worldwide in that area. That’s probably also the reason why the university occupies such a high position in this ranking.” Whether the WURR will grow into a reputable list or turn out to be a short-lived novelty, only time will tell.
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