Reputation survey - world ranking of universities

Today I have responded, for the second time, to the questions of Thomson Reuters' annual academic reputation survey (see also Academic reputation survey - results). Last year there were 13,388 respondents globally. 16% said Western Europe were their region of greatest familiarity, and under 6 % said their area was Arts and Humanities. I am thus one out of approximately 2.000 with familiarity first of all to Western Europe, and one out of 100+ linked to Western Europe and placed within Arts and humanities.

Each respondent is asked to name up to 15 universities in four rounds, all within their own subject area (in my case philosophy): 1) the best universities regionally (in my case in Western Europe) in teaching, 2) the best universities regionally in research, 3) the best universities in teaching globally, and 4) the best universities in research globally. The reputational survey is the second stage of Thomson Reuters' process eventually resulting in Times Higher Education World University Rankings, preceding institutional data collection.

Thomson Reuters have now, I see, compiled a Top 100 World Reputation Ranking, based on last year's survey involving me and 13,387 other respondents. Six universities stand out: Harvard, MIT, University of Cambridge, University of California Berkeley, Stanford University and University of Oxford.

Here's a link to a list of all higher education institutions covered by the survey (and here to all in Western Europe).

See also What's the best university in Norway? and THE world ranking of universities.

Academic Reputation Survey - results

Last year I was one of the respondents in Thomson Reuters global Academic Reputation Survey, which was used as part of the foundation for the 2010 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. See Report of findings for the full report.

Excerpts:

* 13,388 respondents
* of which 16% said Western Europe was their region of greatest familiarity
* of which 3,790 scholars were based in Europe
* of which 69% were academic staff, 15% research staff, 7% senior institutional leadership, 6% graduate/post-graduate students, and 2% teaching staff
* All in all, the average respondent reported spending 52% of the worktime doing research, 31% teaching and 18% administering. While senior institutional leadership spends 48% of the time administering, and 32% doing research, research staff spent 81% of the time doing research, teaching staff spent 57% of the time teaching, and graduate/post-graduate students spent 81% doing research, 13% teaching and 6% administering. Academic staff, the majority group (9,219 respondents), spent 46% researching, 37% teaching and 18% administering.
* of which 78% were male - most (87%) in Engineering & technology; fewest (69%) in Social Sciences
* of which only 779 identified as Arts & Humanities, the smallest group (Social Sciences and Life Sciences were both represented by 2000+ respondents)
* Research papers published: In average, a respondent said to have published 53.4 research papers (median: 30; meaning that a few publishes a lot and increases the average). Those with tenure had in average published 64.9 papers (median: 40), those without tenure in average 29.2 (median: 15). Even among those without tenure, however, 5% had published 100+ (with tenure: 17%). Males had published in average 58.9 papers (median: 32), females 33.5 (median: 20) - note that the survey says nothing about age distribution, which might explain part of the gender gap.
* Of senior institutional leadership, who had an average of 101.7 published papers (median: 70), 59% had published 50+ research papers and 34% 100+. Of academic staff, 33% had published 0-20 papers and 31% 20-50. Of research staff, 60% had published 0-20 papers, and of teaching staff 61%. Of graduate/post-graduate students, who had an average of 8.6 papers published (median: 6), 94% had published 0-20 papers and 6% 20-50.

Thomson Reuters remarks that respondents from Arts & Humanities were poorly represented in line with the poor publishing frequency compared to scholars from harder sciences (I wonder how the numbers would look like if a distinction was introduced between single authorship and co-authorship; or if the number of pages published had been counted...).

What's the best university in Norway?

Some time back I wrote about the Times Higher Education world ranking of universities. At first only one Norwegian university - the University of Bergen - made it to the top 200-list, but the University of Oslo has later been places as no. 186 (see 'Editor's note' at the end of the ranking), which schockingly places them only as Norway's second-best university (on other rankings, such as the Shanghai ranking, UiO remains Norways highest ranked university).

/

This peculiar little story envelops in my Norwegian language blog, Utopisk Realisme ("Hvilket er Norges beste universitet?").

THE world ranking of universities

This year I am one of the many who have voted (upon invitation) as part of the Times Higher Education (THE)'s annual ranking of the world's top 200 universities. The ranking has just been published. These are the universities I have collaborators at, and/or have visited, and/or have academic contacts at (the University of Oslo is so far not ranked, due to lacking info - and I am sure I am leaving out some):

/

6. University of Cambridge, UK (visited)

17. University of Toronto, Canada (contact)

34. National university of Singapore, Singapore (contact)

89. Lund university, Sweden (contact)

102. University of Helsinki, Finland (visited, contact)

106. Purdue university, USA (contact)

115. National Taiwan university, Taiwan (contact)

135. University of Bergen, Norway (visited, contact, collaborator)

147. Uppsala university, Sweden (contact, collaborator)

167. Aarhus university, Denmark (contact)

170. University of Groningen, Netherlands (visited)

177. University of Copenhagen, Denmark (visited, contact)