Analysing the performance of New Zealand universities in the 2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities

Publication Details

This occasional paper examines the performance of New Zealand universities in the 2010 Shanghai Jiao Tong University Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). In particular, the analysis examines the data behind the overall rankings to get a more comprehensive picture of the level of performance of New Zealand universities.

Author(s): Dr Warren Smart, Tertiary Sector Performance Analysis and Reporting Division [Ministry of Education]

Date Published: September 2010

Appendix

**Table 3: Definitions of measures used in the 2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities**
Component	Weight	Definition
Alumni	10%	The total number of the alumni of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals. Alumni are defined as those who obtain bachelors, masters or doctoral degrees from the institution. Different weights are set according to the periods of obtaining degrees. The weight is 100% for alumni obtaining degrees after 1991, 90% for alumni obtaining degrees in 1981-1990, 80% for alumni obtaining degrees in 1971-1980, and so on, and finally 10% for alumni obtaining degrees in 1901-1910. If a person obtains more than one degree from an institution, the institution is considered once only.
Award	20%	The total number of the staff of an institution winning Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine and economics and Field Medals in mathematics. Staff is defined as those who work at an institution at the time of winning the prize. Different weights are set according to the periods of winning the prizes. The weight is 100% for winners after 2001, 90% for winners in 1991-2000, 80% for winners in 1981-1990, 70% for winners in 1971-1980, and so on, and finally 10% for winners in 1911-1920. If a winner is affiliated with more than one institution, each institution is assigned the reciprocal of the number of institutions. For Nobel prizes, if a prize is shared by more than one person, weights are set for winners according to their proportion of the prize.
HiCite	20%	The number of highly-cited researchers in 21 subject categories. These individuals are the most highly cited within each category. The definition of categories and detailed procedures can be found at the website of Thomson Reuters.
Nature & Science (N&S)	20%	The number of papers published in the journals Nature and Science between 2005 and 2009. To distinguish the order of author affiliation, a weight of 100% is assigned for corresponding author affiliation, 50% for first author affiliation (second author affiliation if the first author affiliation is the same as corresponding author affiliation), 25% for the next author affiliation, and 10% for other author affiliations. Only publications of 'Article' and 'Proceedings Paper' types are considered
Publications (PUB)	20%	Total number of papers indexed in Science Citation Index-Expanded and Social Science Citation Index in 2009. Only publications of 'Article' and 'Proceedings Paper' types are considered. When calculating the total number of papers of an institution, a special weight of two was introduced for papers indexed in Social Science Citation Index.
Per capita	10%	The weighted scores of the above five indicators divided by the number of full-time equivalent academic staff. If the number of academic staff for institutions of a country cannot be obtained, the weighted scores of the above five indicators is used.
Overall	100%

Source: www.arwu.org

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