Student - November 15, 2007

Wageningen off Times top hundred list

Wageningen University is no longer in the list of the top hundred universities that the British daily The Times publishes each autumn in its Higher Education Supplement. The university has fallen from 97th to 148th place.

Wouter Gerritsma, an information specialist at the Wageningen UR library, is not particularly impressed with the rankings list. ‘Loads of universities bounce all over the place in the list. If the ranking is really based on quality, that shouldn’t happen at all: things simply don’t change that much.’ The method used to compile the list, which is heavily dependent on experts’ judgements of reputation, has changed considerably in a number of ways this year. That means it is not really possible to compare it with previous years’ lists, according to Gerritsma.

In its strategic plan, Wageningen UR indicates that it plans to stay in the Top Hundred Global Universities published by Newsweek. In the summer of 2006 Wageningen was number 61 on that list. Newsweek has not yet published an update of its rankings this year.