Editor's note: This article refers to methodological updates to the THE World University Rankings. Our ‘WUR 3.0’ methodology has now been confirmed, and you can read details about it here.
We have big plans for our World University Rankings and, as I announced at the Times Higher Education World Academic Summit in September, we will be setting up an advisory board to support our work on a new methodology.
The creation of the board is an important part of our commitment to widen the transparency of our approach – as we’ve seen with our new Impact Rankings advisory board.
The World University Rankings were first created in 2004, with a significant change in methodology in 2010. Since then, the rankings have grown from 200 universities to 1,662 (and even more if you include reporter institutions).
One of the developments we are focusing on now is how to update the methodology through a process that we refer to as World University Rankings 3.0.
We’ve been discussing these changes with the sector at a number of our summits across the world, but we believe it is now time to gather a group of people who can help us to explore the proposed changes (alongside other issues) in more detail.
As with the Impact Rankings advisory board, the WUR board will not replace those discussions, but it will provide a more formal mechanism for feedback and will allow us to go into more detail than we usually can in the wider meetings.
The role of the board will be clear: to advise on the general strategy for the World University Rankings in order for it to achieve its objectives. THE will still be responsible for the final decisions, but the board will help us get those decisions right.
We’re looking for people who are passionately committed to higher education. We expect members to participate as individuals, not as representatives of a particular organisation, but we hope that they will be able to provide insights from differing perspectives to make the rankings stronger.
We will be looking for people who believe that they can be “critical friends” to the rankings and we will be trying to recruit a broad range of people from diverse backgrounds and geographies.
The board will meet four times a year and THE will support the members with information and administrative support.
If you are interested in being a member of the World University Rankings advisory board, email us at rankings@timeshighereducation.com, providing a brief insight into your experience and interests. Applications will close on 31 October 2021.
Duncan Ross is chief data officer at Times Higher Education.
