Carleton has dropped in the rankings of the Times Higher Education’s (THE) list of the world’s best universities.
Carleton fell to the 501-600 range, down from last year’s 225-250 range.
THE’s World University Rankings are determined by looking at five areas: research, teaching, knowledge transfer, industry income, and international outlook, according to Peter Sigrist, a spokesperson from the magazine.
The team maintaining the database of information that goes into creating the list looks at over a thousand institutions in 88 countries and examines data from leading scholars, as well as research publication databases. THE is based in Britain.
Carleton released a statement that addressed the big drop in rankings.
“While these changes have drastically affected Carleton University’s overall position, we continue to rise in categories like teaching and international staff and students,” the statement read. “Rankings are just one aspect that prospective students and their parents take into account when deciding which post-secondary institution to attend.”
Sigrist said including more universities in the list, as well as a change in how the magazine determines the rankings, were the main reasons for the university’s dramatic change in the rankings.
This was the first year THE ranked the top 800 instead of the top 400 universities, which affected the rankings of many institutions, Sigrist said. Carleton’s research, industry, and international outlook scores were consistent with last year, but 145 new entries to the list slotted above it.
Excluding research papers with over 1,000 authors affected a small number of universities quite dramatically as well, including Carleton. According to Sigrist, these so-called “kilo” papers were artificially inflating the scores of smaller universities, so this year they were excluded from the data that determined final rankings.
“In general, where we see evidence of significant rises or falls, it often relates to a combination of factors, such as a reduction in income from industry, international student enrolment, or the ratio of staff to students,” he added.
THE rankings do have an effect on what decision some students make on where to enroll for university. The rise in students studying outside of their home countries who look at rankings like THE’s annual list is one of the magazine’s key drivers, said Sigrist.
Sigrist added that the most successful schools often had their governments heavily investing in their higher education. Russia, for example, has a 5-100 initiative where the government has committed to support at least five universities entering the Top 100 by 2020. In other cases, money is less of a factor, but the government is still prioritizing higher education in its initiatives.
First-year journalism student Reina Cowan said knowing about the drop wouldn’t have factored into her decision to attend the school.
“The ranking is for Carleton as a school in general, and I assume there are multiple factors included in the ranking. It might have changed my view of the university in general if I had read it before coming, but not of this specific program,” she said.
To rise in the ranks next year, individual institutions like Carleton need to develop strategic improvements across the areas covered by THE for its rankings, according to Sigrist.
Sigrist said this is not an easy task, but that with dedicated leadership a university could take strides forward.
