Many people (particularly GCSE and A-Levels students) lack the very basic statistical knowledge and even INTELLIGENCE in understanding university rankings and talking stupid RUBBISH like e.g. "why Warwick is top five in the UK but not top 10 or even top 20 in the world, so World ranking is scandalous or flawed". The followings are the simple summary of the methodologies used by different newspapers and by AWRU and QS. Hopefully, the summary gives those people some kind of basic statistical sense to understand rankings.
The Guardian:
1. Teaching quality - as rated by graduates of the course (10%) (data source: the National Student Survey)
2. Feedback - as rated by graduates of the course (5%)
3. Spending per student (17%)
4. Staff/student ratio (17%)
5. Job prospects (17%) (data source: DLHE)
6. Value added (17%)
7. Entry score (17%)
The Times:
1. Student Satisfaction (data source: the National Student Survey 2005)
2. Research (data source: 2008 Research Assessment Exercise)
3. Entry Standards - Average UCAS tariff score (data source: Higher Education Statistics Agency)
4. The student-staff ratio (data source: Higher Education Statistics Agency)
5. Library and Computing spending - Average expenditure per student (data source: Higher Education Statistics Agency)
6. Facilities spending - Average expenditure per student on sports, careers services, health and counselling
7. Good Honours - Percentage of students graduating with a good degree, 'good' being defined as a first or 2.1
8. Graduate prospects – Percentage of UK graduates in graduate employment or further study (data source: HESA's survey of Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE))
9. Completion - Percentage of students who manage to complete their degree.
The Sunday Times
1. Student satisfaction (200 points) - The results of national student surveys (NSS) are scored taking a theoretical minimum and maximum score of 50% and 90% respectively (data source: the National Student Survey)
2. Teaching excellence (50) - Excellence is defined as: subjects scoring at least 22/24 points, those ranked excellent, or those undertaken more recently in which there is confidence in academic standards and in which teaching and learning, student progression and learning resources have all been ranked commendable (data source: Quality Assurance Agency; Scottish Higher Education Funding Council; Higher Education Funding Council for Wales)
3. Heads’/peer assessments (100) - Heads are asked to identify the highest-quality undergraduate provision (data source: The Sunday Times heads’ survey and peer assessment)
4. Research quality (200) - Based upon the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (data source: Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce))
5. A-level/Higher points (250) - Nationally audited data for the susbsequent academic year are used for league table calculations (data source: Higher Education Statistics Agency)
6. Unemployment (100) - The number of students assume to be unemployed six months after graduation is calculated as a percentage of the total number of known destinations (data source: HESA, Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education)
7. Firsts/2:1s awarded (100) - The percentage of students who graduate with firsts or 2:1 degrees. Unclassified degrees are excluded (data source: HESA)
8. Student/staff ratio (100) - Student/staff ratio calculated by Hesa by institution (a ratio of 10:1 as a benchmark for excellence, worthy of 100 points) (data source: HESA)
9. Dropout rate (variable) - The number of students who drop out before completing their courses is compared with the number expected to do so (the benchmark figure shown in brackets) (data source: Hefce, Performance Indicators in Higher Education.
The Independent
1. Student satisfaction - measure of the view of students of the teaching quality at the university (data source: the National Student Survey)
2. Research assessment/quality – measure of the average quality of the research undertaken in the university (data source: 2008 Research Assessment Exercise)
3. Entry standards - the average UCAS tariff score of new students under the age of 21 (data source: HESA data for 2008–09)
4. Student:staff ratio - measure of the average staffing level in the university (data source: HESA data for 2008–09)
5. Academic Services spend - the expenditure per student on all academic services (data source: HESA data for 2006–07, 2007–08 and 2008–09)
6. Facilities spend - the expenditure per student on staff and student facilities (data source: HESA data 2006–07, 2007–08 and 2008–09)
7. Good honours - proportion of firsts and upper seconds (data source: HESA data for 2008–09)
8. Graduate prospects - measure of the employability of a university's graduates (data source: HESA data for 2007–08)
9. Completion – measure of the completion rate of those studying at the university (data source: HESA performances indicators, based on data for 2008–09 and earlier years)