THES

Hmm it's that time of year again where the whole debate about our local universities dropping in the ranks of the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES). This year USM dropped again to 307. So does that means that USM's standard is bad....hmm personally I do not think so. I was reading up on the method THES comes out with the ranking.

The ranking weights are:
Peer Review Score (40%)
Recruiter Review (10%)
International Faculty Score (5%)
International Students Score (5%)
Faculty/Student Score (20%)
Citations/Faculty score (20%)

Found this contreversy about the scoring from wikipedia. Sounds interesting. The Rankings have previously been criticized for placing too much emphasis on peer review, which receives 40% of the overall score. Some have expressed concern on the manner in which the peer review has been carried out. In a certain report, Peter Wills from the University of Auckland, New Zealand wrote of the QS-THES Ranking:

'But we note also that this survey establishes its rankings by appealing to university staff, even offering financial enticements to participate (see Appendix II). Staff are likely to feel it is in their greatest interest to rank their own institution more highly than others. This means the results of the survey and any apparent change in ranking are highly questionable, and that a high ranking has no real intrinsic value in any case. We are vehemently opposed to the evaluation of the University according to the outcome of such PR competitions.'

Furthermore, the THES ranking does not verify the names of the Universities properly. For example, the University of Illinois which actually comprises of 3 separate campuses(universities) was lumped together in the ranking.

I also found out that this deals with academic wise. Meaning book knowledge. Now I believe for USM's case, we may not be the best in academics, but we sure are much much better in the field of research. I can actually quote people from overseas universities who are ranked high said the facilities in their university for research are scarce.

So to those who think that USM is bad....think again. I still love it here.

KAMI MEMIMPIN!!!