In the past few weeks, we have been discussing topics centred around searching and choosing schools for further education. We have looked at how to search and choose a good Master’s program, factors to consider when choosing a school abroad, and the best countries in the world for studies.
In this article, we will be looking at the best school search platforms. Our focus and scope will be on university league tables. These are ranking tables/maps/charts that give you a comparative understanding of a university’s performance, which could aid your university, as well as course choices. Do they have limitations? Yes, and we will look at those later. For now, here’s your exotic list in no particular order.
The Times Higher Education World University Ranking
The Time Higher Education World University Ranking covers over 1,500 universities in 93 countries and regions. It is one of the largest and most diverse rankings on the web. You can filter Universities based on teaching, citation, industry income, international outlook, research and overall ranking. Furthermore, you can narrow down your search by region or country, subject, and even by University name.
Round University Ranking
Founded by RUR rankings agency in Moscow, Russia, Round University Ranking (RUR) ranks over 1,100 universities across 85 countries, using 20 indicators in 4 key areas: financial sustainability, research, international diversity and teaching. The RUR contains ranking from as far back as 2010. You can compare different universities on their website and explore several universities using the Map of the World university feature.
Top Universities
The Top Universities website is another platform for finding an excellent postgraduate programme. The website ranks universities by regions using the QS (Quacquarrelli Symonds) World University rankings. You can search for graduate programmes by Study level (Bachelor, Masters, and PhD), Subject of Interest and Study Destination. You can compare different global universities. The website has a course matching feature. This helps match you to good postgraduate programmes by answering a few questions. Top Universities also have a library of resources that will help you in each stage of the graduate admission process.
The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)
The ARWU, also known as the Shanghai Rankings ARWU became the first to benchmark world-class universities based on various indicators in 2003. Today they rank about 1800 universities, and only 1000 are published on their website.
CWTS Leiden Ranking
This ranking exclusively ranks universities based on the volume of academic publications and citation impact. It checks the number of publications as well as the number of publications in the top 10 of that field. Currently, there are over 1000 universities ranked by their bibliographic impact. It can give you a chart, list or map view of the universities. This is especially useful if you are looking for a research-intensive university measured by research output in units of publication volume.
Limitation of League Tables
One of the main limitations of using university leagues tables to search for schools and courses is that most of them (the top ones) only index 1% of universities worldwide (less than 2000 of the world’s 17,000+ universities) which can make you miss a lot of opportunities outside this bracket.
Now your turn. I’d like to hear your thoughts or experiences in searching for universities. What platforms have you looked to in search of schools? Do you have any questions or concerns about using these platforms to find a place of study? Please drop your comments below.