Comparative Study On The Index System And Correlation Analysis On The Ranking Change Of The Four World University Rankings

With the rapid development of higher education,university rankings have mushroomed and became a worldwide phenomenon in the development of education.Especially under the construction of first-class universities and disciplines,the call for "enhance construction by evaluation" is becoming increasingly strong.As an evaluation tool,the university rankings have been highly valued by all sectors of society.Among them,U.S.News,THE,QS,and ARWU are considered to be "four major world university rankings" because of their long development time and wide range of influence.Many universities regard these four rankings as their evaluation criteria to examine their own advantages and insufficient.The status and value of the world's university rankings are constantly rising,and all universities and colleges regard it as the reference data for planning future development.In this way,the scientific nature and fairness of the rankings become particularly important.Whether or not a ranking list is fair and scientific depends on whether the rationality of the setting of index system and weights.It is necessary to pay close attention to study the index system deeply and comprehensively,continuously improving the science nature of the four rankings.This study focus on the comparison of index systems and ranking changes in U.S.News,THE,QS,ARWU,the four major university rankings,and studies the rationality based on literature research,comparative research,statistical analysis,and expert interviews.First,we sort out the basic content,index evolution and content weight of the four rankings index systems,and content weight of the four rankings,and explore the commonness and difference between them through comparative analysis method.Then the ranking changes of 126 universities and colleges which keep in top 200 among the last four years(2015-2018)in four rankings are selected,and the Kendall rank correlation coefficient in SPSS24.0 was applied to examine the consistency and stability of the ranking.Based on the calculation of the standard deviations among universities in the four rankings,a global analysis of university rankings was finished and presented as scatter plots.In addition,the results of domestic and foreign experts' questionnaires and interviews are included in empirical analysis of this study,which demonstrate all aspects of each ranking from view of experts.Finally,the problems and corresponding suggestions are introduced,which are expected to study the rationality of the four rankings,further promote the idea "promoting construction by evaluation",development of "double class universities" and construction of world-class universities in China.