CWUR Center for World University Rankings 2024 | Must-know for Students

The Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) began publishing a yearly ranking of 100 world universities out of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in 2012. Four years later they relocated to the United Arab Emirates and over the years the ranking has grown and grown. They now consider and rank close to 20,000 universities but only publish a list of the top 2000.

The aim of this ranking is to provide an evaluation of universities in terms of the quality of the education they provide, the prestige of the faculty, alumni outcome and research without using surveys or requesting raw data directly from the universities.

CWUR was also publishing a list of the top 10 universities for an incredible total of 226 subjects, though as of June 2024, the last subject publication currently dated back to 2017.

Key facts about the ranking

  • Publisher: CWUR Center for World University Rankings, United Arab Emirates
  • Latest ranking publication date: 13 May, 2024
  • Publication frequency: Annual
  • Geographic focus: Global
  • Ranking type: University rankings.
  • Year of first publication: 2012
  • 2000 universities in ranking

Ranking table 2024 CWUR Center for World University Rankings

What is really measured and how? - Methodology DeepDive

The Center for World University Rankings set themselves a task apart when they developed their methodology: assessing quality of education, faculty, alumni outcome and research output without the use of surveys or university data submissions.

Research performance is the most weighty of the four main factors (40% of total score). The data used to compile the scores comes from Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science. They consider the number of papers published, the number of articles which appear in top tier journals, publications in journals considered to be highly influential, and the number of highly cited papers.

The CWUR ranking shares some common traits with the Shanghai Ranking, in that their evaluations of both faculty quality (10% of total score) and quality of education (25%) take into consideration the number of awards etc won by both faculty and students/alumni. In this case, though, the list of awards considered is much broader: 30 awards in addition to Nobel prizes and Fields medals, which mediates some of the criticism that this factor automatically favours older institutions.

The fourth factor, alumni employment, is worth a quarter of the total score for all institutions. It calculates the percentage of alumni with top executive positions in the world’s largest companies. Companies which fall under this category are those which appear on the Forbes Global 2000 list.

Types of Data Collected Directly by the Publisher
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External databases/data providers used

Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science Web resources related to Prizes awarded Forbes.com

Criteria Classification
  • 75% Academic Performance
  • 25% Student Outcome (alumni employment)
Which of these common ranking elements are covered and which is the main focus?
  • Research publications and citations
  • Academic reputation - survey or other
  • Student Survey
  • Internationalization (% of foreign staff/students/exchange)
  • Employer reputation survey or Salary data
Methodology
https://cwur.org/methodology/world-university-rankings.php

Our take - How useful is the ranking for students?

Rating
3.0 / 5.0
Popularity
Google results for: CWUR "Centre for World University Rankings": 21000
PROS
  • evaluation of a massive 20,000 universities
  • completely different methodology to other major rankings agencies
CONS
  • subject ranking not updated since 2017
  • high value placed on Forbes Global 2000 list
Practical use

The CWUR ranking might definitely be among the list of rankings a potential student might want to consult. The different methodology gives another take on the schools evaluated, especially as we leave behind the usual suspects who always top the lists.

Criticism

Regardless of whether or not you agree that awards and academic distinctions are a sign of the quality of an institution, this ranking certainly has an interesting take on university assessment. Personally, I am not convinced by the 25% value awarded to the percentage of graduates working as executives in the Forbes Global 2000 companies. My vote would go more towards innovators and small business success stories. But, I may be in the minority in that regard.

Cora Lee Paddock, UniversityGuru: 20 August, 2024