Are university ranking and popularity related? An analysis of 500 universities in Google Trends and the QS ranking in 2012-2020

Rybiński, Krzysztof; Wodecki, Andrzej

doi:10.1080/08841241.2022.2049952

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Score the predicted value and the numbers are the coefficients found by the optimization procedure and is the mark achieved by an institution. Number − 0.019 is the intercept, and the variables are each of the six indicators with values in the range of [1,100] multiplied by the coefficient to achieve the final score in the same range [1,100]. This regression equation is used to predict the final score of any university that intends to be ranked by QS-WUR.…”

Section: Multiple Regression and Panel Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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A data analytics approach for university competitiveness: the QS world university rankings

Estrada-Real

Cantú-Ortiz

2022

Int J Interact Des Manuf

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In recent years, higher education has felt pressured to prepare its graduates for the highly competitive international market due to globalization. Thus, many institutions have turned to position themselves well in university rankings as a way to attract the best academic and student talent from all over the world. Our work presents a predictive model for measuring university performance in the QS world university rankings (QS-WUR). We used a ten-year dataset to build models with statistical and machine learning algorithms contained in the library Caret of the RStudio software tool, to forecast global university position in QS-WUR. With these tools, we designed a methodology to predict the university partners' Final Scores based on their historical performance, achieving errors in the range of one or two points out of 100. The modelling may be a useful aid for university officers to develop strategies for improving institutional processes to attract the best students, faculty, and funding, enhance international collaboration and outlook, and foster international university prestige.

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Section: Multiple Regression and Panel Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…World-class universities have characteristics that differentiate and distinguish them, including recognized graduates, cutting-edge research, and international information and technology transfer. Higher education institutions compete and collaborate to attract the most talented students, the best academics, and international funding [1].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A data analytics approach for university competitiveness: the QS world university rankings

Estrada-Real

Cantú-Ortiz

2022

Int J Interact Des Manuf

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“…Based on data from a medium-sized German university, the university's place in the rankings had high importance for both international and national students, similarly to other determinants of reputation and quality 9 . A study using Google trends and QS World University Rankings found positive and significant relationship between QS ranking results and Google Search volumes for universities in the top 500 10 . Nevertheless, international students are mostly concentrated at large universities 11 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationship between bibliometric indicators and university ranking positions

Szluka,

Csajbók,

Győrffy

2023

Sci Rep

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A growing interest for demonstrating prestige and status of higher education institutions has spurred the establishment of several international ranking systems. A major percentage of these rankings include parameters related to scientific productivity. Here, we examined the differences between diverse rankings as well as correlation with bibliometric parameters and disciplines for the top universities. We investigated the top 300 universities from four international rankings, the Times Higher Education World University Ranking (THE), the QS World University Rankings (QS) the ShanghaiRanking-Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and the U.S.News Best Global Universities Ranking (USNews). The assessed parameters include ranking positions, size related and bibliometrics-related indicators of each selected ranking. The weight of scientometric parameters ranges between 20% (QS) and 75% (USNews). The most important parameters defining ranking positions include citations, international reputation, and the number of researchers, but the correlation strength varies among ranking systems. The absolute number of publications and citations are particularly important in ARWU and USNews rankings, and scientific category normalized (field weighted) citation impact is central in THE and USNews rankings. Our results confirm that universities having outstanding results in rankings using size-independent indicators (QS and THE) compared to others have significantly lower number of students. High impact research can improve position in ARWU and USNews ranking lists. Regarding to different disciplines, the main results show that outstanding universities in THE ranking have higher publication activity in social sciences and universities which perform better in USNews and QS ranking have more publications in science, technology, and medicine fields and lower score in social sciences. In brief, here we present a comprehensive analysis of the correlation between scientometric parameters and university ranking positions, as well as the performance of outstanding universities and their correlation with different disciplines, to help decision makers select parameters for strengthening and to attract the interest of prospective students and their parents via a better understanding of the functions of different ranks.

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“…Combined with the increasingly marketized environment in which universities operate, this is requiring universities to increase their visibility and public outreach (McIntosh et al, 2022). Although scientific reputation plays a crucial role in the online attention received by a university, this relationship is not straightforward since research capacity and scientific impact do not translate automatically into greater online visibility (Holmberg, 2015; Rybiński & Wodecki, 2022). This issue constitutes the empirical background to the present research.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From academic to media capital: To what extent does the scientific reputation of universities translate into Wikipedia attention?

Arroyo‐Machado,

Díaz‐Faes,

Herrera‐Viedma

et al. 2023

Asso for Info Science & Tech

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Universities face increasing demands to improve their visibility, public outreach, and online presence. There is a broad consensus that scientific reputation significantly increases the attention universities receive. However, in most cases estimates of scientific reputation are based on composite or weighted indicators and absolute positions in university rankings. In this study, we adopt a more granular approach to assessment of universities' scientific performance using a multidimensional set of indicators from the Leiden Ranking and testing their individual effects on university Wikipedia page views. We distinguish between international and local attention and find a positive association between research performance and Wikipedia attention which holds for regions and linguistic areas. Additional analysis shows that productivity, scientific impact, and international collaboration have a curvilinear effect on universities' Wikipedia attention. This finding suggests that there may be other factors than scientific reputation driving the general public's interest in universities. Our study adds to a growing stream of work which views altmetrics as tools to deepen science–society interactions rather than direct measures of impact and recognition of scientific outputs.

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Are university ranking and popularity related? An analysis of 500 universities in Google Trends and the QS ranking in 2012-2020

Cited by 7 publications

References 28 publications

A data analytics approach for university competitiveness: the QS world university rankings

A data analytics approach for university competitiveness: the QS world university rankings

Relationship between bibliometric indicators and university ranking positions

From academic to media capital: To what extent does the scientific reputation of universities translate into Wikipedia attention?

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