Rankings assign scores to institutions all around the world. Whilst their individual methodologies, accuracy and value remain a common topic of debate, interest in the type of information these rankings provide has seen a significant rise in recent years. Given the current movement towards internationalisation in higher education, it is now vitally important that institutions profile themselves in the international education market. Below you'll find a description of six important rankings and their methodology, as well as links to their published results.

Times Higher Education World University Ranking

Until 2009, the THE World University Rankings were developed in cooperation with QS. In 2010, THE selected Thomson Reuters as their new rankings data provider. A new ranking methodology was developed, using thirteen performance indicators. These indicators fall into five categories with different weightings in the final ranking score: citations (30%), research (30%), teaching (30%), international outlook (7.5%), and industry income (2.5%). The teaching and research scores are to a large extent based on academic reputation surveys (50% and 65% respectively).

The University of Amsterdam is ranked 92th in the 2011-12 THE World University ranking. Three other Dutch universities are listed in the top 100, and almost all Dutch universities can be found in the top 200.

In the 2011 Subject top 50 rankings, the UvA is ranked 30th in Arts and Humanities.

QS World University Rankings

As of 2010, QS publishes its World University Ranking independently. Previously, the QS ranking was established in partnership with THE. As in prior years, the ranking is based on scores for the quality of research (citations and peer review), student-to-faculty ratio, the proportion of international students and faculty, and the reputation of institutions among employers. QS includes around 700 universities in the ranking.

In the 2011-12 QS ranking, the UvA is ranked 63d overall, the highest-ranked Dutch university on the list. In the rankings per domain (of which there are five), the UvA is in the top 50 in the areas of Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences & Management. The Natural Sciences domain, as well as Life Sciences & Medicine, appear in the top 100.

Academic Ranking of World Universities (Shanghai Ranking)

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) is also a global ranking published annually by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (which is why it is also known as the Shanghai Ranking). Institutions are ranked according to the number of Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals awarded to staff members and alumni and the number of citations and articles in Nature and Science. The UvA is in the 101-150 group in this ranking.

Leiden Ranking

The Leiden Ranking, drawn up by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University, assesses research results, based on bibliometric data from Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science. This ranking focuses only on publications in the sciences and, to a somewhat lesser extent, the social sciences. The arts and humanities are excluded because in these domains the bibliometric indicators of the Leiden Ranking do not have sufficient accuracy. Only universities with more than 500 publications in Web of Science per year are taken into consideration.

In the 2011 ranking, the average number of citations of the publications of the UvA, normalized for field differences, publication year, and document type, falls within the top 20% of the 500 institutions worldwide with the most publications. 13.8% of the UvA publications belong to the top 10% most frequently cited publications in their field each year. The UvA also does well in terms of the new indicators collaborative publications (top 10% worldwide) and international collaborative publications (top 20% worldwide).

HEEACT Ranking

The HEEACT Ranking, or the Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities, is established by the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT). 

This ranking evaluates the scientific paper performance of universities, resulting in a worldwide top 500. This performance is assessed on the basis of eight indicators that fall into three criteria: research productivity (accounting for 20% of the score), research impact (30%), and research excellence (50%). It is based primarily on publications in clinical, natural, technical and life sciences, and to a lesser extent, social sciences. Arts and Humanities are not taken into account. 

Compared with the Shanghai ranking, which is also based on research performance, the HEEACT ranking aims to: 

• Place greater emphasis on the quality of research (80% of the performance score)
• Be less biased towards larger universities
• Be less biased towards longer-established universities

In 2011, the University of Amsterdam is ranked 68th in the HEEACT Ranking.

CHE Rankings

The German Centre for Higher Education Development (CHE), has developed rankings that are established very differently from the rankings mentioned above.

The University Ranking evaluates bachelor and master programmes. The focus is primarily on German, Swiss, Austrian, and Dutch universities. Every year, the ranking is updated with results for a limited number of subject areas. So far, the UvA has participated in the rankings of the following subject areas: Biology, English, History, Computer Science, Physics, Educational Sciences, Psychology, Romance languages and cultures, Chemistry, Dentistry, and Mathematics.

The Excellence Ranking pertains to master and Ph.D. programmes. Per subject area, a limited number of universities throughout Europe are selected for this ranking on the basis of excellence with respect to various research- and internationalisation-indicators. The Excellence Ranking has been established in the areas of Biology, Economics, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Chemistry, and Mathematics. The UvA is the only Dutch university to have been selected for all areas of the Excellence Ranking.

 The CHE rankings differ in a number of ways from the rankings mentioned earlier:

• Rankings are compiled by subject area;
• There is no absolute ranking. In the University Ranking, programmes are divided into ‘top', ‘middle' and ‘bottom' groups for each criterion. For programmes that participated in an earlier round of the ranking, indicators show whether the programme's score per criterion improved or declined compared to the previous ranking round. In the Excellence Ranking, only the best programmes are listed, and the strong points of the programmes are highlighted;
• The ranking is multidimensional; the user can compare programmes by those criteria that are important to him/her;
• The ranking is compiled on the basis of both factual data and students' judgements.

The CHE Ranking is intended primarily for applicants to bachelor, master and Ph.D. programmes.