A Review of Outcomes of Seven World University Ranking Systems

There are many national and international ranking systems rank the universities and higher education institutions of the world, nationally or internationally, based on the same or different criteria. The question is whether we need all these ranking systems? Are the outcomes of these ranking systems as different as they claim? This study collected data from the results of seven major ranking systems including Shanghai, QS, 4International, Webometrics, HEEACT, and Leiden University ranking and analyzed them. Results showed a significant correlation among the outcomes of these international ranking systems in ranking and rating the world's top 50 universities. The highest correlation was between Shanghai - THE (Spearman's Rho = 0.85); Shanghai - Webometrics (Spearman's Rho = 0.81) and Shanghai - Leiden (Spearman's Rho = 0.80). Finally, some suggestions for improving current ranking systems have been investigated.