世界大学排行榜相似性度量及差异分析

Similarity Measures and Difference Analysis of World University Rankings

大学排名是高等教育全球化的结果,目的之一是为相关决策者提供关于大学质量水平的参考,但不同排行榜排名结果不一致是大学排名最引争议的地方。通过对上海软科、U.S.News、QS和泰晤士报4个影响力较大的排行榜2021年发布的全球大学排名结果进行相似性度量,发现总体上排名存在一定差异,其中软科和U.S.NEWS排行榜一致性相对较高,而QS与其他排行榜的差异最大。通过分析,排名方法中评价指标体系、权重设置、数据来源和文献计量分析方法等方面的不同是导致排名结果差异的主要原因,同时分析认为现有世界大学排名方法还不足以全面反映高等教育质量的整体水平,需要理性使用世界大学排行榜,谨慎解读其排名方法背后所蕴含的真实信息。

University rankings can be seen as a result of the globalization of higher education,which has led to a growing need for comparable information on educational and research conditions at different institutions,and rankings can help prospective students,researchers and teachers in their decision-making process for reference.Different ranking methods will obviously lead to different results,and the differences between different world university rankings prompte us to analyze the consistency and reasons for the differences in their ranking results.For the sake of comparability,the global university rankings released in 2021 by four influential ranking agencies,namely Shanghai Ranking,U.S.News,QS and The Times,are selected as the research objects.On the basis of quantitative comparison,through the qualitative analysis of its ranking method,study the reasons for the differences in the results of different rankings,and further explore whether the existing world university rankings can truly provide the quality level of world higher education that stakeholders care about.reliable information.