The United States of America has almost 50 universities, which are ranked among top hundred universities around the world according to a recent survey by Forbes. The comprehensive ranking system in the US which ranks the university nationally is quite challenging. There are various organisations which ranks the universities and they consider several combinations and several contributing factors which may vary on a great extent depending on the organisations.
Some organisations rank the universities based on the median salary a graduate earns, while others rank a university on its accomplishments and research facilities. These rankings are often conducted by the newspapers, magazines and websites.
Apart from the ranking of entire institutions, the awarding bodies also rank the universities for their specific departments, programs and schools. The major contributions for ranking would be the student successes, the demographic location, the facilities, the alumni, the research options and few other criteria. There has been also much debate on the usefulness and certainty of these rankings. The diversification in the methods followed by the ranking bodies often invites criticism.
Some factors discussed below, which decides the ranking and acts as parameters for rankings are-:
The global research reputation: The research facilities and the number of students indulging in the research area play an important role in determining the ranking. The universities which have best research resources compared to the counterparts in the country will receive a better ranking.
The Publications: The publications by the students or staff of the university, published in various reputed magazines and newspapers are also a determining factor. Also the books written by the students and staff which get accolades globally determine the ranking.
Conferences: The conferences, seminars and workshops conducted by the university itself or a certain department
International Collaborations: Universities in the US often collaborate with other institutions across the world, to improve the teaching condition, the quality of research and other areas. The universities do such collaborations without expecting any returns. These collaborations will contribute to the ranking criteria. In fact almost every top university in the US have collaborations with different universities across the world notably in the Middle East and Third World countries. These collaborations boost the teaching techniques and also adds value to the collaborating universities.
Number of research students: The number of research students a university takes in an academic year is also considered for the rankings. The research facilities, funding, teaching facilities university provide to the research students and the number of PhD degrees awarded by the university to the students, the number of new inventions and patents, these factors are also considered as parameters by the ranking bodies.
Student Successes: The most important aspect which every student is concerned about is the student success rate. This can be measured by the median salary secured by a graduate from a particular programme of the university. Many of the ranking institutions rate the universities based on this factor alone. The alumni success defiantly vouches for the universities quality and teaching.
No comments:
Post a Comment