MENU

Times Higher Education Young Universities Ranking: another look

by Anand Kulkarni

Photo of Anand Kulkarni wearing a blue and white checkered shirt and wearing glasses

Dr Anand Kulkarni is a higher education professional at Victoria University.
This article is based on his article, ‘Times Higher Education Young Universities Ranking: another look’, which was published in Campus Review on 2 March 2022.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the view of AAIR.

Photo of a young boy

Times Higher Education produces the Young Universities Rankings annually to capture the performance of newer Universities and as a contrast to its World University Rankings. The Young University Rankings 2022 captures institutions under the age of 50 years, and the recently released 2022 Times Higher Education Young Institution Rankings shows some interesting results.

In 2021, 475 young institutions were ranked around the world, in contrast to 539 in 2022. This indicates the growing international competition for rankings as more institutions meet the thresholds for inclusion. The Young University Rankings comprise the same metrics and pillars as the Times Higher Education  World University Rankings; however, there are differences in weightings. In the Young University Rankings, reputational indicators are worth less in the overall score compared to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, because it takes time for institutions to develop strong reputations.

Countries that have the most ranked young institutions include India (40), Iran (37), Turkey (40), Spain (32), and the UK (37). Australia punches above its weight with 23 ranked institutions. What is instructive is that in some measure, developing or emerging economy institutions are very well represented in these young institution rankings, reflecting the challenge that younger institutions in these nations present. For example, Pakistan has 14 and Malaysia has 13 young universities ranked. A clear exception is China, which has only 11 institutions represented in the Young University Rankings, compared to 97 (out of 1,662) institutions in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Put simply, China accounts for 5.8% of ranked institutions in the World University Rankings compared to only 2.0% of the Young University Rankings.

The US presents an interesting case as well. There are only 6 US institutions ranked in the Young University Rankings, indicating that most of the ranking activity in the US is associated with older universities. For example, the US accounts for just 1.1% of ranked young institutions compared to a very significant 11.0% in the World University Rankings (183 institutions out of 1,662). The US is the overall leader in the World University Rankings; thus, older institutions in the US continue to dominate the rankings.

Photo of three graduates in front of a sign reading, ACADEMICS.

As indicated, there are 23 ranked young Australian institutions, which is the same as last year. Australia accounts for 4.3% of the globally ranked young institutions compared to 2.2% (37 ranked institutions) in the World University Rankings. Australia in general has a high proportion of young institutions, which will hold it in good stead as these institutions continue to mature and develop.

In 2022, 10 Australian institutions improved their rankings in the Young University Rankings compared to 2021. The most significant gains have been for the University of Southern Queensland, Charles Darwin University, Swinburne University and Deakin University, while other institutions—including for example Western Sydney University, Australian Catholic University, and RMIT—have experienced gains. In 2022, the top 5 institutions are the University of Technology Sydney (8th), the University of Canberra (17th), Queensland University of Technology (21st), the University of Wollongong (24th), and Western Sydney University (31st).

In looking at the scores by pillar across the ranked young universities, it is evident that the best scoring areas are in international outlook and citations. Australian institutions continue to be highly internationalised, although the full impact of COVID-19 has yet to be felt. Scores are strong, generally indicating that young institutions are highly regarded around the world.

To what extent are young institutions in Australia posing a challenge to older, more established institutions?

One way to assess this is to examine the performance of young institutions in the overall World University Rankings. We find that for the World University Rankings, two young institutions (the University of Technology Sydney and the University of Canberra) are represented in the top 10 Australian institutions in the World University Rankings. Thus, the top echelons of the World University Rankings are still dominated by the older, more established institutions.

If we look at the next 10 Australian institutions in the World University Rankings, i.e. numbers 11–20, the pattern changes and we find that 7 of these institutions are young universities. These young universities range from 193 to 251–300 globally. Beyond the top 20 Australian institutions in the World University Rankings, young institutions dominate. From all of this we can say that at this point young Australian universities tend to be in the middle to lower reaches in the World University Rankings.

The Times Higher Education Young University Rankings reveal that Australia has a strong rankings performance amongst these newer institutions, even if at this point they do not definitively challenge the established status quo.

Anand Kulkarni

AAIR member, 2022

Want To Get Published Too?

If you’re interested in being considered for publication on the AAIR website, please email your original content to the AAIR Secretariat.

Email Us Your Article/Paper

Subscribe to our Newsletter