Organisation - October 11, 2012

University up and down in the rankings

Wageningen UR both rose and fell five places in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

In the general THE ranking, the university went up from 75 th to 70 th place, while among the Life Sciences universities Wageningen fell from 17 th to 22 nd place. The ranking measures primarily the quality of the university's research. Wageningen's score is virtually the same as a year ago.
All the Dutch universities on the list have gone up the general ranking. Leiden has gone up from 79th to 64 th place, Utrecht from 68th to 67 th place and Wageningen is now the third best Dutch university at position 70. More spectacular is the rise of Rotterdam from position 157 all the way to 72, Delft from 104 to 77 and Groningen from 134 to 89. This 'outstanding performance' (Times) is largely due to research data having been submitted in a better way to the office which computes the scores. Wageningen UR did the same last year and rose from position 144 to 75. Other universities have now cottoned on to this.
International analysts consulted by THE believe that the rise of the Dutch universities up the rankings masks the truth of the situation in higher education. While Asian countries invest heavily in higher education, European countries and the United States are skimping on it, partly because of the economic crisis. The dominance of western universities in the rankings is therefore diminishing, say the analysts.