International University Rankings

Various international higher education rankings have been established in an attempt to make a listing of the world’s top universities. Each ranking system uses its own data collection, methodology and dissemination in compiling their results. Although extensively researched, these rankings (naturally) can only form a limited representation of a more complex reality.

Below, the following leading rankings are highlighted:

The Leiden Ranking

The Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University, has developed a ranking system based on its own bibliometric indicators. The list consists of all universities with more than 700 Web of Science indexed publications, covering the 500 largest universities in the world in terms of publication numbers.

Among the top 250 of most publishing universities (during the years 2004-2010), the Dutch universities are listed. This accompanying table shows their individual positions:

Further information about the Leiden Ranking

Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) considers every university that has any Nobel Laureates, Fields Medalists, Highly Cited Researchers or papers published in Nature or Science. In addition, universities with significant amount of papers indexed by Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) are also included. In total, more than 1000 universities are actually ranked and the best 500 are published on the web.

Among the top 500 universities worldwide, twelve Dutch universities are listed. This accompanying table shows their individual positions:

Further information about the Academic Ranking of World Universities

The QS World University Rankings

The QS World University Rankings is a ranking of the world’s top 500 universities by using a methodology that has been published annually since 2004. Originally published in collaboration with Times Higher Education (THE), and known as the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings, QS assumed sole publication of the existing methodology when Times Higher Education split in order to create a new ranking methodology.

The QS World University Rankings aims to recognize universities as the multi-faceted organizations that they are and to provide a global comparison of their success against the notional mission of remaining or becoming world-class. A distinctive feature of this system is its use of peer review derived from thousands of scholars and academics in various fields, and from many recruiters of graduates from around the world. Other criteria which this system includes are international staff and student numbers, citations data and faculty/student ratio.

Among the top 200 universities worldwide, twelve Dutch universities are listed. This accompanying table shows their individual positions:

Further information about the QS World University Ranking

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings

The Times Higher Education (THE) has been probably best known for co-publishing the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings, which first appeared in November 2004, with new rankings published annually for the past six years.

Since October 2009, the magazine Times Higher Education has independently developed a new ranking methodology, in consultation with its readers and its editorial board. The results will be published annually from autumn 2010.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2009 (published on September 16th, 2010) shows that collectively the Dutch universities are ranked fifth overall. In the field of research-output, six Dutch universities are included in the top 100 worldwide. However, in the overall top 100 world-class universities, the Dutch universities are notably absent. A possible explanation for this seems to be the methodology’s emphasis on investment in higher education. In contrast to high-scoring countries like China, South Korea and Canada, which invest significantly in higher education as an economic driver, The Netherlands seem to trail behind.

Further information about the Times Higher Education World University Rankings