How I Used Rankings to Choose My University

Most international students like myself learn to take heed of university rankings long before deciding our academic futures. Our exposure would have begun with prestigious institutions like Cambridge and Oxford, followed by the big names in popular cities like London and New York. Studying abroad in Australia, my undergraduate degree choices were heavily influenced by rankings as Australian universities take them very seriously. So when I finally decided to do my Masters in the UK, I turned again to university rankings for help.

Rankings are significant in tertiary education because they help shape opinions of current and future students, especially high achievers and international postgraduates. Employers use rankings for recruitment, universities use them to identify potential partner institutions, while governments use them to draft education policies. That being said, an obsession with rankings may also widen the gap between “elite” universities and the smaller institutions catering to students with different needs.

Regardless of the divided opinions on rankings, I believe they can help you decide where to enrol to study what you want. Here are my tips to avoid an unhealthy fixation with university rankings and make the most of them instead.

Choose by discipline

It’s understandable to want a university that’s popular, but I believe it’s best to choose leading universities in your chosen subject. Some of these institutions might be unfamiliar to your forever-nosy aunt , but chances are you will impress your future employers. I wanted to specialise in Journalism so I searched for ranking by subject area before shortlisting my university options.

For international postgraduates, you may want to start by choosing a country with a good reputation for higher education, as the difference in quality between institutions will be smaller. This means that if you don’t get your first choice, the second and third options are unlikely to be worse.

Think value for money

Cinema blockbusters are famous, but small-scale indie films can be no less impactful. Similarly, lower-ranked institutions may not be highly popular but they may just be able to tick all your boxes. Instead of dismissing institutions I’d never heard of during my rankings search, I did some research to see if they might fit my development goals. I was on a Chevening Scholarship so my costs were taken care of, but if you’re paying your way then be mindful of the differences in tuition fees, cost of living and other requirements when choosing your university.

You first, uni second

A university ranking is usually done with traditional markers (e.g. research citations, graduation rates) so it’s up to you to decide if that’s the kind of academic environment you want. I wanted a spacious university campus with a diverse student background, in a city that also had a lot of green spaces. I didn’t just check the modules and courses offered by the universities, but also the campus and the city to make sure they were suited to me. Don’t pick a university just because it ranks highly, especially if the subjects / modules or teaching methods don’t appeal to you. A small college providing the course you really want is better than a famous university that doesn’t.

Not all that glitters is gold

In the same vein, not all rankings are entirely useful for students. Some may not consider contextual differences when obtaining data, so they end up equating quality education with research productivity. A university’s ranking is more likely to increase with the number of publications in peer-reviewed journals. This effectively sidelines smaller or newer universities, which can’t really compete with the older institutions that have long histories of research work.

A number of small tertiary institutions actually specialise in certain fields of study which means you are more likely to be involved in the early stages of a new innovative research project. Some rankings also tend to measure a university’s reputation through the opinions of employers, field experts and alumni, which may not be an accurate projection of reality.

Consider the alternatives

Commonly, ranking companies list universities based on several factors:

Reputation
Research results
Publications and citations
Income and funding
Student / staff diversity

Alternative rankings such as student reviews and international student satisfaction surveys helped me with a more relevant gauge on whether the university will deliver the student experience I wanted. General university rankings may take into account student surveys but they are usually a small percentage of the overall score. Student reviews included very personal experiences and insights that may not be the most objective, but were still honest and relevant to me. Most rate the university they studied in, the course, their social life and their overall experience.

A lot goes into the eventual decision, so naturally rankings are not the be all and end all. I found that rankings gave me a pretty good idea of the institutions I should consider for my postgraduate course, and even introduced me to some universities that I had not heard of before. A good understanding of rankings can also help you create a shortlist of options that you can later explore alongside other considerations. To help you along, here’s a guide to postgraduate rankings tables, explaining how the main global rankings work and looking at ways you can use them when considering a postgraduate degree. Good luck!

Editor's note: An earlier version of this blog was first published on 04/04/19. We've checked and updated it for current readers.