Analysis of key university leadership factors based on their international rankings (QS World University Rankings and Times Higher Education)

Abstract

In the context of globalization of the educational services market, competition between universities is becoming more intense. This manifests itself, among other things, in the struggle for positions in international university rankings. Given that universities are evaluated according to many criteria in such rankings, it becomes necessary to identify the most significant factors in determining their positions.This study aims to identify the key factors determining the world’s leading universities’ leadership in international university rankings. The numerical values of the criteria for compiling the QS World University Rankings (QS) and Times Higher Education (THE) rankings were an empirical basis for the study. The analysis covered the Top 50 universities (according to the QS ranking) and was conducted based on reports for 2020 and 2021.At first, clustering was carried out (method – k-means); the data set was the combination of numerical values of QS and THE criteria (six and five criteria, respectively). The universities were divided into three clusters in 2020 (23, 19, 8 universities) and 2021 (23, 17, 10 universities). This showed the universities’ leadership relative to each other for each year.At the second stage, classification processing was performed (method – decision trees). As a result, criteria combinations that give an absolute separation of all clusters (2020 – five combinations; 2021 – eight combinations) were identified. The obtained combinations largely determine universities’ affiliation to clusters; their criteria are recognized as key factors of their leadership in the rankings. This study’s results can serve as guidelines for improving universities’ positions in the rankings.

Quality of scientific activity as a determinant of socio-economic development

“…An arboretum can even be an example of a research center. It provides comprehensive opportunities for practical teaching (Kumar, et al, 2021;Mohanu et al, 2022;Kuzior et al, 2022aKuzior et al, , 2022bMidor et al, 2021;Polyakov et al, 2019, implement some key aspects of the activities of European higher education institutions in the domestic educational process (Polyakov et al, 2020). The state financing of higher education institutions is complex and requires a comprehensive approach to forming its optimal volume.…”

Smashing the glasshouse. Diminishing the prestige of measures of higher education

“…University leaders and administrators are gaining even more experience in working with rankings (Rauhvargers, 2014). From a management and marketing standpoint, there is a practical need to compare the rankings and the numerical values of various criteria based on which they are compiled (Polyakov et al, 2020) to steer decision making and incorporate changes where necessary. Many universities establish institutional policies for communicating with ranking providers and appoint a staff member who follows both trends in the ranking and the success of rival universities.…”

“…As a result, short-term gains to perform better in ranking are encouraged at the expense of meaningful activities that are not measured by global rankings. Polyakov et al (2020) discusses university rankings within the context of globalization of the educational services market in which competition between universities is becoming more intense. International rankings are considered as a reflection of universities' competitiveness in the global market.…”

University Rankings: Proposal for a Future Research Agenda through a Systematic Literature Review

“…This literature review identified that 20% of studies addressed university rankings from a global perspective [5,9,11,12,18,20,28,31,34,35,[44][45][46][47]49,51,[55][56][57][58].…”

“…Times Higher Education (THE) and QS World University Rankings [18,27,28,33,44,47] Academic UI Green Metric World University Ranking (WUR) and Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE-WUR). [13] ISC World University Ranking (ISC WUR) Leiden Ranking Nature Index, Times Higher Education (THE), and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).…”