Global higher education institutes ranking systems: A comparative study

The global significance of the rankings of universities is immeasurable as they determine the influence factor of academic institutions influencing the decision-making of scholars, students, and policymakers. This research seeks to explore in detail four of the most popular university ranking systems: Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings, Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), and University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP). A comparative analysis was conducted to review each ranking system's methodologies and criteria. These analyses deeply touch on rankings indicators such as academic reputation, faculty-student ratio, research output, citations, gender diversity, and industry collaboration to explain their influence on university rankings. The similarities and differences between various rankings in terms of what they focus on in evaluating institutional excellence are studied. The analysis of the different methodologies will give better meaning to the strengths, weaknesses, and possible biases that each ranking has, thereby providing a sense of their validity and reliability. In conclusion, this study will contribute to the growing debate about the rankings of universities by providing stakeholders with valuable perspectives to navigate through the complex landscape of higher education institution evaluation. Results show that university expert-based reputation is the most influential metric in both THE and QS rankings. For ARWU, the most influential indicator is the papers published in Nature and Science. For URAP, international collaboration is the metric which influenced the final ranking of universities the most.