[NU Sports] NU is 73rd in Times Higher Ed Survey

[John Labbe]

I'm not sure what this has to do with sports, but how much stock do you put in a ranking that places Purdue 14 spots ahead of us (as an overall university)?  It's a heck of a thing to rank universities internationally as a whole university.  None of the US News rankings, for example, purport to rank an entire university (they focus on undergrad, grad departments and professional schools).

It's clear that this survey is an international name-recognition contest that heavily favors research univesities with famous, big, far-reaching graduate programs.  NU's lack of name-recognition (it's not exactly a unique name) probably hurts.  As for ND, it's primarily an undergraduate school; it doesn't really have a top name as a graduate school.  You don't see many U.S. liberal arts colleges, for instance.

Well, I'm headed up to the Virginia game tonight.  I'm hoping we'll be pumped up for our first home game and score a win on national TV.



On Wednesday, December 01, 2004, at 01:39PM, Jonathan Michael Hawkins <spiritu at northwestern.edu> wrote:

>The Times (of London) Higher Education Survey came out on November 5,
>2004, and NU is ranked number 73 in the world.
>
><http://sky.prohosting.com/gssq/misc/unis.htm>
>
>We're 1 spot behind the University of California at Santa Barbara.  We're
>49 spots behind the University of California at San Diego.  USC, I'm happy
>to note, is 180th.
>
>We're 7 spots behind Wisconsin, 14 spots behind Purdue, 38 spots behind
>Illinois, 42 spots behind Michigan, and 60 spots behind Chicago.
>
>Here's the Big Ten, from highest to lowest:
>
>13: University of Chicago ("Chicago University")
>31: University of Michigan ("Michigan University")
>35: University of Illinois ("Illinois University")
>59: Purdue University
>66: University of Wisconsin ("Wisconsin University")
>73: Northwestern University
>82: University of Minnesota ("Minnesota University")
>106: University of Iowa ("Iowa University")
>116: Michigan State University
>130: Penn State University
>174: Indiana University
>
>(Unsuprisingly) Not in Top 200: (the) Ohio State University
>(Suprisingly, but satisfyingly) Not in Top 200: Notre Dame
>
>The THES inexplicably put University of Texas at 15, Texas A&M at 105, and
>Rice at 146, in a bizarre shakeup of the state of Texas.
>
>Inexplicable given the THES' focus on including half the schools in the
>California system is the exclusion of academic heavyweights Texas A&M
>International University at Laredo, the University of Texas at El Paso,
>and the Southwest Texas State Teacher's College.
>
>Go Cats, beat the Cavaliers,
>
>Jonathan
>
>-- 
>Jonathan Michael Hawkins       "The only thing necessary for the triumph
><http://www.jomiha.com>         of evil is for good men to do nothing."
>
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