Ranking universities

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) recently ranked all Pakistani universities using an approved global criteria for rankings. There is no magic formula to rank a university, which is not an easy task and is always considered controversial and questionable. As Pervez Hoodbhoy writes: “As in a beauty contest, opinions and tastes count” (The Express Tribune, February 13). Each time any ranking is published, for every 100 universities ranked, it makes only one happy and ninety-nine unhappy. It is like walking a tight rope!

The highest-ranked universities are usually the ones that make significant contribution to the advancement of knowledge through research, have faculty with advanced degrees, and state-of-the-art laboratories, libraries and supporting infrastructure.

There are many global ranking standards, the more popular ones being QS World University Rankings, Times Higher Education, Shanghai Index, Webometrics, US News & World Report etc. Each ranking has its own criteria, some giving more weightage to parameters like research, while others to teaching. In some cases, even the alumni of an institution winning Nobel Prizes, and Field Medals, or for that matter, international outlook, which includes the number of international faculty and students, are given weightage. None of these parameters, including others where data is not available, such as employability of graduates or peer review/public perception, were included in the HEC rankings. The pros and cons of university rankings are discussed in great depth in ‘The Challenge of Establishing World Class Universities’, (World Bank 2009) and  ‘The Road to Academic Excellence’ (World Bank 2011), and multiple other publications and conferences on the subject. All such reports underscore the fact that regardless of their controversial nature and methodological shortcomings, university rankings have become the norm and are unlikely to disappear. They are, in fact, most eagerly awaited, and sought after by universities, faculty and students alike.

The HEC used the QS ranking methodology, which was amended as per feedback received from the universities, and included the following scoring points: Quality 60 points (which included implementation of QA criteria 18 points and Teaching Quality 42 points) and Research 40 points. Each was broken down into multiple parameters like the number of full-time faculty to total number of students, number of full-time PhD faculty and its ratio to total faculty, PhD graduates per faculty and per year, applicant selectivity, ratio of laboratory computers and library books to total students, sponsored research grants, travel grants, number of international conferences held, impact factor research publications, number of internationally accepted journals published by the university, Internet bandwidth utilisation, library books, and other relevant parameters as used in global rankings.

It is important to understand that the HEC ranking is a ‘university’ ranking and NOT a ‘programme’ ranking. For example, Nust has an excellent business school but it is not reflected in the business school category. Similarly, some universities may have strengths in certain programmes but weaknesses in others so it may lead to lower averages. Also, campuses were included but affiliated institutes were not.

A number of ‘urban’ institutes, though offering quality teaching, could not make it to the top because they fell short of the ranking criteria. Having a ‘pop’ culture on campus, organising musical evenings, marketing shows, career placements fairs, workshops, guest lectures, model UN, etc does not aid in the global ranking of a university. A university is a hub of knowledge creation and research, and it must have full-time faculty with advanced degrees. What counts is if the research of their university is classified internationally, or is it published in magazines and newspaper supplements? How many research grants has the university won? What is the ratio of full-time faculty to ‘briefcase’ faculty? What is the ratio of full-time PhD faculty to full-time faculty, and so on.

Unfortunately, ranking is quantified rather than qualified. Faculty that excels in teaching may not reflect in the final analysis, however, those with higher qualifications would. Similarly, private universities, unless they are really top notch, have limitations. But Lums and Aga Khan University stand out and lead the next best in their category by a large margin! Scores across categories cannot be compared unless they are normalised to compile a consolidated ranking, but even then this practice is questionable. A certain ranking criteria may be favorable to one university and not to the other. For example, Berkeley ranks number two in the Shanghai Index, tenth in the Times Higher Education and 21st in the QS World University Rankings. My friend at the University of California at Berkeley told me that they recognise the Shanghai Index but not QS!

There are, of course, lessons learned from this first-time ranking of Pakistani universities: (i) Regularity of ranking is required (ii) Programmes-based ranking is also required (iii) Public perception, peer evaluation, and graduate employability surveys are required (iv) On the ground verification of data is required. According to experts, “it would be futile and mistaken to try to go back to the era before ranking, instead, researchers and policymakers should work together to establish improved benchmarks to correctly reflect the standing of a programme or a university”.

In conclusion, rankings intend to measure national and international competitiveness, however, they are inherently controversial — no ranking is entirely objective and definitive. The absolute quality of an educational institution cannot be measured by numerical indicators only. Although criticised on many counts — including the parameters used, which may favor certain institutions and not others — still the number of universities being drawn into the ranking is on the rise.Above all, prospective applicants to a university, and employers seeking graduates for placement, should not use the ranking data as the sole guide for choosing a university, rather they should look for additional information before making a selection.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2012.