THES World University Ranking - 2010

juillet
Fri, 17 Sep 2010 15:40:50 +0000

Yeah, PhD awards have more to do with the mentoring and resources than teaching. After 4 years of undergrad (and sometimes 2 years of an MA) it’s relatively easy to move through the coursework in the PhD program - that’s not what stops us from finishing the degree. Also, it shouldn’t be the sheer number of awards, because that just favors the large universities. It should be the ratio of the number of PhD students who finish to the number of PhD students who started.

I also find it funny how they broadcast far and wide that this is less based on reputation than past years. No, they just found a way to sneak reputation in there without calling it that.

But I’m not surprised by the high placement of Yeshiva. Albert Einstein is a fine place to do research as a biomedical or sociomedical researcher. I am surprised that Austin didn’t make the list, though; it’s one of the best schools in my field and in many fields. I don’t know anything about KCL but I definitely know that in terms of research output, UT-Austin is a better known school than Yeshiva and Drexel.

I don’t know - I think there’s something inherently silly about quantitative ranks (instead of placing universities in groups of 10 or 20) but at the same time, you have to go for the rankings that are going to give you what you need. Want a prominent Wall Street or political/NGO job? Go for the QS rankings because you’re going to need the reputation. Want to go to a school known for its research? THES may be the one for you. And the intelligent graduate student will also gauge opinion within his or her field.