Paris Sciences et Lettres University

Posted on October 30, 2021October 30, 2021 by snmcgannon · 1 Comment

Ranking of Universities in the European Union, 2021

Rank	Institution	Change from 2020	ARWU	QS	THE	USNWR	Average World Rank
UR	Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) University 🇫🇷	NA	38	44	40	NR	~ 40.67
UR	Karolinska Institute 🇸🇪	NA	42	NR	39	48	43
🥇	Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) of Munich 🇩🇪	–	48	64	32	46	47.5
🥈	Technical University of Munich 🇩🇪	–	52	50	38	74	53.5
🥉	Heidelberg University 🇩🇪	–	57	63	42	54	54
4	Sorbonne University 🇫🇷	+1	35	72	88	46	60.25
5	University of Copenhagen 🇩🇰	-1	30	79	96	37	60.5
6	Katholieke Universiteit (KU) Leuven 🇧🇪	+1	87	70	42	48	61.75
7	University of Amsterdam 🇳🇱	-1	101	55	65	38	64.75
8	Paris-Saclay University 🇫🇷	NA	13	86	117	60	69
9	Utrecht University 🇳🇱	-1	50	110	69	48	69.25
UR	Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin 🇩🇪	NA	NR	NR	73	NR	73
10	Leiden University 🇳🇱	–	83	112	71	82	87
11	Wageningen University & Research 🇳🇱	+2	101	123	53	80	89.25
12	University of Groningen 🇳🇱	-1	64	128	80	88	90
UR	Humboldt University of Berlin 🇩🇪	NA	NR	128	74	78	~ 93.33
13	University of Helsinki 🇫🇮	-4	82	104	101	94	95.25
14	Ghent University 🇧🇪	-2	71	141	96	92	100
UR	Free University of Berlin 🇩🇪	NA	NR	127	83	95	~ 101.67
15	Erasmus University Rotterdam 🇳🇱	–	101	179	72	62	103.5
16	Aarhus University 🇩🇰	–	71	155	104	103	108.25
17	Uppsala University 🇸🇪	-3	78	124	131	113	111.5
18	Lund University 🇸🇪	-1	151	87	116	95	112.25
19	Delft University of Technology 🇳🇱	-1	151	57	75	174	114.25
20	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam 🇳🇱	–	101	209	115	84	127.25

Figure 1. Ranking of universities in the European Union for the year 2021.

This is a ranking of the top 20 universities in the European Union ranked relative to each other by average world rank for the year 2021.

Overview and methodology

The ranking was created by averaging ranking placements from the four prominent rankings of world universities (each ranking released in 2021): Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), Times Higher Education (T H E), and U.S. News & World Report (USNWR).

Rank was checked on each list for every EU university ranked on each of the lists. Then, for each university, all its rank placements were averaged across lists to create the new list of average ranking for each university. The universities were then ranked according to their average ranking. The university with the highest average is thus ranked 1st, the one with the second highest average 2nd, and so on.

Finally, the results were tabled, as shown above. The leftmost column shows the final rank (which is relative placement based on average rank, i.e.). The next, institution, column shows the institution ranked along with the flag of the country in which it is located. The next, change from 2020, column shows the distance moved for each institution compared to the 2020 ranking. The next four rightward columns (ARWU, QS, THE, USNWR) show the rank for each given institution in each of those selected world rankings, and the rightmost column (“Average World Rank”) averages the four ranking lists’ rank placement for each university.

Only universities which were ranked on all four lists are counted. Universities which would have appeared had they been ranked by all the rankings are displayed in the ranking where they would have ranked if their average rank was the result of an average across all four rankings. Thus, for example, Humboldt University of Berlin is shown between the 14th and 15th ranked universities, as it would have ranked 15th if it appeared on all four rankings (and maintained its average from the ranking it did appear on). Rather than receiving a ranking placement, universities appearing in these positions are marked “UR” (unrankable) in the rank column, and “NR” (not ranked) in rankings lists in which they were not ranked.

Observations

German universities take the top three spots (again).
Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) University would have placed 1st. It had roughly the 41st ranking placement in the world; yet it is still unranked by USNWR, and thus does not qualify. See more about this here.
Meanwhile, Karolinska Institute would have placed 2nd, with a 43 average (unranked by QS).
The Netherlands has the most universities appearing in the top 20, with 8. The Nordic countries, together, have 5. Belgium and France each have two. No other countries make the top 20.
Wageningen University & Research advanced the most places compared to any university which made the list in 2020 and 2021, moving up to 11th from 13th.
Paris-Saclay University debuts for the first time in the top 20, at 8. This marks the largest advancement of any university on the list.
University of Helsinki has moved downward the most places compared to last year, moving out of the top 10, to 13th.
Overall, European Union universities have advanced in world university rankings in 2021. Whereas last year ranked EU universities average sum came out to 1768.25 (2020), this year the sum is 1679 (2021) — a roughly 90 place difference upward. One major contributor to this upward movement is the appearance of Paris-Saclay University at #8. Last year, it was not even near the top 20.
The top 14 EU universities all average within the top 100 worldwide.
Just one EU university — LMU Munich — averages within the top 50 worldwide.
THE best predicts the summed average.
QS worst predicts the summed average.

In my opinion, global university rankings are not a measure of how “good” a university is. They are, centrally, a measure of university reputation among people in administrative positions in academics. How good a university is for you depends on what your goals are. It is almost entirely contextual. Thus, the rankings I do — which are based on average placements in world university rankings — ought to be seen not as a measure of how good a university is, but as a measure of the average opinion of an academic administrator you’ll get if you ask them to talk about a given university from a global perspective. In this spirit, I offer you a deflationary university ranking.

*The header image used in the article is, to the best of my knowledge, in the public domain. If this is in error, please let me know and I will remove it immediately. To report errors, please email me at tuulifunctional@snmcgannon.com.

Permalink to this article: https://snmcgannon.com/2021/10/28/ranking-of-universities-in-the-european-union-2021/

Posted on April 12, 2021October 29, 2021 by snmcgannon · 2 Comments

Ranking Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) University à la U.S. News (USNWR)

On my most recent rankings — Ranking of Universities in the EU — again appeared the mysterious case of U.S. News‘s lack of a ranking placement for France’s PSL University. PSL ranks very highly on the other three notable world rankings — ARWU, QS, and THE: as I noted in the ranking of EU universities, PSL averages approximately 45th in the world among those three rankings. This average is higher than any other university on the EU ranking (and below only the QS-unranked Karolinska Institute). However, in this article I am going to give an estimate of where USNWR would rank PSL.

PSL University is brand new, technically. It was only formally established as a university in 2019. Its constituents, however, are older — in some cases much, much older. It seems to be these constituents that cause trouble for USNWR, with regard to ranking. USNWR does not seem to realize that these various constituent colleges — which have existed separately for many years — are now, in fact, a single entity. This can be inferred from the fact that USNWR ranks some of these various constituent colleges of PSL. It is these ranking of the individual colleges from which I’ll now construct an averaged, would-be ranking for USNWR. Then, I’ll look at how that fits in with the average we get from the other three rankings. Finally, I’ll see how it squares away with the overall EU rankings.

1. Creating an average ranking of PSL constituents

So, how do the institutions USNWR ranks, rank?

All other PSL constituents are unranked by USNWR.

So what do we get? (252+402+499+1209+1209) / 5 = 714.2 = ~714

Thus, the best we can estimate from the available data is that USNWR would rank PSL around 714 in the world. My hunch is that USNWR would rank PSL — considered as one institution — significantly higher ala the other three rankings. For example, weaknesses in a certain faculty area at one constituent could be expected to be strengthened by another constituent. Along these lines, we should probably expect that these constituents combined would strengthen each other in greater proportion than they would weaken each other. This means that their average undervalues their would-be (and actually-is) collective strength. Further evidence for this is given by the fact that all the other rankings put PSL in or nearly-in the top 50 in the world. However, the above averaging is all we have to go on with regard to USNWR (since we cannot replicate their entire methodology), and despite being far-from-satisfactory, it’s better than what USNWR actually has to offer us in this regard (which is, again, no ranking).

2. Averaging the four rankings

What does PSL rank on the other rankings?

These together give us the average of 44.6666666667, or, ~45.

And how about with our estimate for USNWR? — Well, then we get 212.05, or, ~ 212.

Thus, PSL University’s average across three rankings + USNWR’s average for its ranked constituents = ~212.

3. How PSL compares to the top 20 universities in the EU, given the above

Given PSL’s average of approximately 212, this puts it well outside the top 20 universities in the EU. Currently, the university placing 20th is VU Amsterdam, with an average ranking of 133.25. If the trend of EU-university-worldwide-average continued roughly as it does between 0 and 134 (the interval in which roughly 20 universities place), then we can probably assume PSL places somewhere in the top 50 EU universities — even with an abysmal-by-comparison USNWR placement.

In conclusion, I think the average USNWR rank of PSL constituents is curious. The consistency with which other rankings place PSL at or around the top 50 makes the ~714 average highly suspect. Yes, we don’t have a full picture because not all constituents are ranked, but this is actually more concerning. That’s because the constituents not making the ranking suggests USNWR considers them as not-as-good-as those universities which did make the ranking. Thus, these unranked constituents would likely weigh down an overall PSL rank in a not insignificant way. That said, I also speculated that the constituents that are ranked could — when taken together — end up strengthening each disproportionate to their weaknesses. This would bump up the ranking above the average.

So in the end, I still wish USNWR would just rank PSL University outright so that we can get a better picture of how EU universities stack up.

Permalink: https://snmcgannon.com/2021/04/12/ranking-paris-sciences-et-lettres-psl-university-ala-u-s-news-usnwr/

Posted on February 25, 2021May 9, 2021 by snmcgannon · 6 Comments

List of Top 100 Universities by Highest Rank, 2020-21

This is a list of the highest ranking achieved for every university ranked in the top 100 in the world on any of the four prominent world university rankings (ARWU, QS, THE, and USNWR, i.e.). Thus, so long as a university appears on any one of the four rankings, then it appears on this list — and it appears at whichever spot it ranked highest on any one or more of those lists. You can think of this list in the following way: for each given university, its position on this list represents the highest opinion someone holds of it.

Notes —

In total, 154 universities representing 27 countries are ranked within the top 100 in the world between all four lists.
There are 16 top 10 universities, representing 3 countries which are (in order): the US (with 11 — 3 of which are Californian; 2 of which are Massachusettsan), the UK (with 4 — all of which are English), and Switzerland (with 1).
There are 30 top 20 universities, representing 7 countries which are (in order): the US (with 18 — 6 of which are Californian), the UK (with 5 — 4 of which are English; 1 of which is Scottish), Singapore and Switzerland (each with 2), and Canada, China, and France (each with 1).
There are 78 top 50 universities, representing 17 countries which are (in order): the US (with 34 – 7 of which are Californian), the UK (with 8 — 7 of which are English; 1 of which is Scottish), Australia (with 6), China and Hong Kong (each with 4), Canada and Germany (each with 3), France, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Switzerland (each with 2), and Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, and Sweden (each with 1).
The United States is the 1st most represented country, with 51 universities represented (~33%).
The United Kingdom is the 2nd most represented country, with 18 universities (15 of which are English; 3 of which are Scottish) represented (~12%).
The Netherlands is the 3rd most represented country, with 9 universities represented (~6%).
The countries placing 4th – 8th in representation are (in order): Australia (with 8), Germany (with 7), China and Japan (each with 6), Canada, Hong Kong, and Sweden (each with 5).
There are 32 listed universities outside the western world (~21%).
Universities represent 5 continents.

And finally, some thoughts. It is interesting to note that 15 out of 18 ranked UK universities are highest ranked by QS — a UK-based ranking. This means, if nothing stronger, that QS has the highest opinion of British universities of any of the four prominent rankings. True — someone could object and say that whichever ranking truly has the highest opinion of British universities lists the greatest number of British universities, or has the highest average ranking of British universities, etc. But I think what captures the spirit of these lists is highest rank, and when you talk about highest rank, and look up a university to check its rank, the fact is, when its a UK university, QS will tell you that university is ranked more highly than any other ranking would tell you in ranks a large majority of the time. I might also endorse this stronger claim: QS has a bias for British universities. But this would require a more in-depth look at how it ranks universities in other countries, and also how other rankings rank British universities compared to other countries, etc., and I haven’t looked into it that deeply or in a sufficiently comparative way to fully endorse that claim. But nonetheless, this result is certainly suggestive, and looking for other indicators even superficially shows that a good number of the British universities ranked within the top 100 by QS don’t appear at all in other top 100s. This is definitely something that someone can and should look at further (and perhaps they have).

Along the same lines, 23 out of 27 East and Southeast Asian universities are highest ranked by QS (along with one additional such university ranked equally by THE). Thus, we can again conclude (as above) that QS has the highest opinion of universities in those regions. It’s still not strong enough for bias — but as with the above observation, this is suggestive and someone might be inclined to take a look.

Meanwhile, out of 47 U.S. universities which are highest ranked by only one ranking (i.e., for which there is no shared opinion about its highest placement), only 5 are highest ranked by QS. Meanwhile, ARWU accounts for 18 such rankings, USNWR 15, and THE 9. Thus, we can safely conclude that QS has the lowest opinion of U.S. universities of the four rankings. THE — at 9 — is closer to QS than to USNWR, but just barely. It’s clear that the UK rankings (QS and THE) have a lower opinion of U.S. universities than the Chinese (ARWU) and U.S. (USNWR) rankings.

To sum up:

QS has the highest opinion of British and East and Southeast Asian universities, and the lowest opinion of U.S. universities.
USNWR has the highest opinion of Australian universities.
And the strongest conclusion: British rankings (QS, THE) have a lower opinion of U.S. universities than Chinese and U.S. rankings (ARWU, USNWR) do.

Below you can view the list. If you should find something here is in error, please contact me at tuulifunctional@snmcgannon.com.

Rank	Institution
1	Harvard University 🇺🇸 (ARWU, USNWR) Massachusetts Institute of Technology 🇺🇸 (QS) University of Oxford 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (THE)
2	Stanford University 🇺🇸 (ARWU, QS, THE)
3	University of Cambridge 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (ARWU)
4	California Institute of Technology 🇺🇸 (QS) University of California, Berkeley 🇺🇸 (USNWR)
5	–
6	Columbia University 🇺🇸 (USNWR) ETH Zürich 🇨🇭(QS) Princeton University 🇺🇸 (ARWU)
7	–
8	Imperial College London 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (QS) University of Washington 🇺🇸 (USNWR) Yale University 🇺🇸 (THE)
9	University of Chicago 🇺🇸 (QS)
10	Johns Hopkins University 🇺🇸 (USNWR) University College London 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (QS)
11	National University of Singapore 🇸🇬 (QS)
12	Cornell University 🇺🇸 (ARWU)
13	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 🇸🇬 (QS) University of California, Los Angeles 🇺🇸 (ARWU, USNWR) University of Pennsylvania 🇺🇸 (THE)
14	Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne 🇨🇭(QS) University of Paris-Saclay 🇫🇷 (ARWU)
15	Tsinghua University 🇨🇳 (QS) University of California, San Fransisco 🇺🇸 (USNWR)
16	–
17	University of Michigan, Ann-Arbor 🇺🇸 (USNWR) University of Toronto 🇨🇦 (USNWR)
18	University of California, San Diego 🇺🇸 (ARWU)
19	–
20	Duke University 🇺🇸 (THE) University of Edinburgh 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (QS)
21	–
22	University of Hong Kong 🇭🇰 (QS)
23	Peking University 🇨🇳 (QS, THE) Washington University in St. Louis 🇺🇸 (ARWU)
24	Northwestern University 🇺🇸 (THE, USNWR) University of Tokyo 🇯🇵 (QS)
25	University of Melbourne 🇦🇺 (USNWR)
26	New York University 🇺🇸 (THE)
27	Hong Kong University of Science and Technology 🇭🇰 (QS) London School of Economics 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (THE) University of Manchester 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (QS) University of Sydney 🇦🇺 (USNWR)
28	Carnegie Mellon University 🇺🇸 (THE)
29	–
30	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 🇺🇸 (ARWU)
31	Australian National University 🇦🇺 (QS) King’s College London 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (QS) McGill University 🇨🇦 (QS) University of British Columbia 🇨🇦 (USNWR)
32	LMU Munich 🇩🇪 (THE) University of Wisconsin-Madison 🇺🇸 (ARWU)
33	University of Copenhagen 🇩🇰 (ARWU)
34	Fudan University 🇨🇳 (QS) Kyoto University 🇯🇵 (ARWU)
35	–
36	Karolinska Institute 🇸🇪 (THE) Paris Sciences et Lettres University 🇫🇷 (ARWU) University of Queensland 🇦🇺 (USNWR)
37	Seoul National University 🇰🇷 (QS)
38	Georgia Institute of Technology 🇺🇸 (THE) University of Texas at Austin 🇺🇸 (USNWR)
39	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology 🇰🇷 (QS) Sorbonne University 🇫🇷 (ARWU)
40	University of Amsterdam 🇳🇱 (USNWR) University of Minnesota 🇺🇸 (ARWU)
41	Technical University of Munich 🇩🇪 (THE)
42	Heidelberg University 🇩🇪 (THE) King Abdulaziz University 🇸🇦 (USNWR)
43	Chinese University of Hong Kong 🇭🇰 (QS) Rockefeller University 🇺🇸 (ARWU) University of Pittsburgh 🇺🇸 (USNWR)
44	University of Colorado at Boulder 🇺🇸 (ARWU) University of New South Wales 🇦🇺 (QS)
45	Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven) 🇧🇪 (THE) Ohio State University 🇺🇸 (USNWR) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 🇺🇸 (ARWU)
46	–
47	Shanghai Jiao Tong University 🇨🇳 (QS)
48	City University of Hong Kong 🇭🇰 (QS) Monash University 🇦🇺 (USNWR) University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas 🇺🇸 (ARWU)
49	University of California, Santa Barbara 🇺🇸 (ARWU)
50	–
51	–
52	Utrecht University 🇳🇱 (ARWU)
53	University of Maryland, College Park 🇺🇸 (ARWU) University of Southern California 🇺🇸 (THE) Zhejiang University 🇨🇳 (QS)
54	Boston University 🇺🇸 (THE)
55	–
56	Tokyo Institute of Technology 🇯🇵 (QS) University of Zürich 🇨🇭 (ARWU)
57	Delft University of Technology 🇳🇱 (QS)
58	University of Bristol 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (QS)
59	University of Geneva 🇨🇭 (ARWU) University of Malaya 🇲🇾 (QS)
60	Brown University 🇺🇸 (QS) University of Oslo 🇳🇴 (ARWU)
61	École Polytechnique 🇫🇷 (QS)
62	Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai 🇺🇸 (USNWR) University of Warwick 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (QS) Vanderbilt University 🇺🇸 (ARWU) Wageningen University and Research 🇳🇱 (THE)
63	–
64	University of California, Davis 🇺🇸 (THE)
65	University of Paris 🇫🇷 (ARWU)
66	Ghent University 🇧🇪 (ARWU) National Taiwan University 🇹🇼 (QS) University of Buenos Aires 🇦🇷 (QS)
67	University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center 🇺🇸 (ARWU)
68	Erasmus University Rotterdam 🇳🇱 (USNWR)
69	Aarhus University 🇩🇰 (ARWU) Korea University 🇰🇷 (QS) McMaster University 🇨🇦 (THE) Stockholm University 🇸🇪 (ARWU) University of California, Irvine 🇺🇸 (ARWU) University of Groningen 🇳🇱 (ARWU)
70	Leiden University 🇳🇱 (THE)
71	Emory University 🇺🇸 (USNWR)
72	Osaka University 🇯🇵 (QS)
73	University of Adelaide 🇦🇺 (USNWR) University of Montreal 🇨🇦 (THE) University of Science and Technology of China 🇨🇳 (ARWU)
74	Lomonosov Moscow State University 🇷🇺 (QS) University of Helsinki 🇫🇮 (ARWU)
75	Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin 🇩🇪 (THE) Hong Kong Polytechnic University 🇭🇰 (QS) Pennsylvania State University 🇺🇸 (USNWR)
76	–
77	Pohang University of Science and Technology 🇰🇷 (QS) University of Glasgow 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (QS) Uppsala University 🇸🇪 (ARWU)
78	University of Tübingen 🇳🇱 (THE)
79	Purdue University 🇺🇸 (ARWU) Tohoku University 🇯🇵 (QS) University of Western Australia 🇦🇺 (USNWR)
80	Humboldt University of Berlin 🇩🇪 (THE) Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam 🇳🇱 (USNWR)
81	University of Auckland 🇳🇿 (QS) University of California, Santa Cruz 🇺🇸 (USNWR)
82	–
83	Nagoya University 🇯🇵 (ARWU) University of Freiburg 🇩🇪 (THE)
84	–
85	Yonsei University 🇰🇷 (QS)
86	Durham University 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (QS)
87	University of Birmingham 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (QS) University of Bonn 🇩🇪 (ARWU)
88	University of Basel 🇨🇭 (ARWU) University of Florida 🇺🇸 (ARWU) Sungkyunkwan University 🇰🇷 (QS)
89	Rice University 🇺🇸 (QS)
90	University of Barcelona 🇪🇸 (USNWR) University of Southampton 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (QS)
91	University of Leeds 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (QS)
92	–
93	University of Sheffield 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (QS) Weizmann Institute of Science 🇮🇱 (ARWU)
94	–
95	–
96	University of St. Andrews 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (QS)
97	Lund University 🇸🇪 (QS) University of Arizona 🇺🇸 (USNWR)
98	KTH Royal Institute of Technology 🇸🇪 (QS)
99	Université Grenoble Alpes 🇫🇷 (ARWU) University of Nottingham 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (QS)
100	Michigan State University 🇺🇸 (USNWR) Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México 🇲🇽 (QS)

Table 1.

Permalink: https://snmcgannon.com/2021/02/24/list-of-top-100-universities-by-highest-rank-2020-21/

S.N. McGannon

Tag: Paris Sciences et Lettres University

Ranking of Universities in the European Union, 2021

Ranking Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) University à la U.S. News (USNWR)