Comparing the Assessment Parameters of the QS Asia University Rankings 2019 with the QS World University Rankings 2019

[unpad.ac.id, 2/11/2018] At the end of last October, the QS Asia University Rankings (AUR) released the ranking of higher education in Asia in 2019. Universitas Padjadjaran in the range of 200-300 or the sixth position of the top 10 national universities .

Based on information from the Head of International Office of Unpad, Dr. Ronny Lesmana, M. Kes., AIFO, PhD, the release of the 2019 QS AUR ranking showed the same rank as Unpad in 2018, which was ranked sixth at the national level. All universities generally experienced data normalization.

The results of this ranking were different from the ranking version of the QS World University Rankings 2019 which were released last June. In the release of QS WUR 2019, Unpad was in fourth place from 9 Indonesian universities included in the ranking. This ranking difference was based on differences in some of the rating points.

Dr. Ronny explained, in QS AUR 2019, there were several differences in assessment methodologies when compared to QS WUR 2019. The existence of data normalization and differences in methodology caused the ranking results between QS WUR and QS AUR to be different.

“The data submitted and used on QS AUR was the same data used on QS WUR,” said Dr. Ronny.

In the AUR 2019 QS system, the evaluation parameters included academic reputation (30%), staff reputation (20%), ratio of students and lecturers (10%), international research cooperation (10%), number of research citations (10%) and total research per faculty (5%), ratio of lecturers with doctoral degrees (5%), proportion between academic internationalization (2.5%) and the proportion of international students (2.5%), and the proportion between incoming student exchange programs (2.5 %) and student exchange programs out (2.5%).

There were three parameters highlighted by Dr. Ronny, namely student ratio, percentage of citations, and international research cooperation. The parameter ratio of students in 2019 QS AUR was different from the QS WUR 2019. In terms of value, the parameter ratio of students in QS WUR 2019 gave a high score for Unpad.

“While in QS AUR 2019, Unpad data was normalized by the number of lecturers with doctoral degrees in the faculty and how many publications were produced per faculty. This made the points in QS AUR small, while in QS WUR the value was large, “said Dr. Ronny.

For this reason, the faculty needs to encourage an increase in lecturers with doctoral degrees to obtain professorship. This increase is also in line with the rules of the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education which targets that university lecturers have at least a doctoral degree in 2020.

The second parameter, the percentage number of citations of Unpad publications. In quantity, said Dr. Ronny, the number of Scopus indexed publications in Unpad is very good. However, most of the publications are still in the Q3 and Q4 journals, which the chances of disitation per year are not large.

Unpad encourages lecturers to be able to publish in Q1 journals. This effort was realized through a number of facilitation in the form of research grants to strengthen aspects of academic leadership. With the increasing number of publications in Q2 and Q1, Unpad citations will also increase.

Furthermore, the cooperation of international level research networks is an important assessment. Unpad has collaborated with a number of universities and institutions at the international level.

“Overall, foreign partners drawn from Scopus indexed product publications have not been reflected in many countries, only certain countries. This is a big point, “explained Dr. Ronny.

By utilizing opportunities for research cooperation between partner institutions abroad, Unpad academics must actively stir up joint research activities. Scientific publications remain the ultimate goal. However, the most important thing in the research activity is how the products can be downstreamed and beneficial to the welfare of the community. *

 

Reported by Arief Maulana | Translated by dfa

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