Sensitivity analysis of the ARWU ranking: Effects of indicator removal

Abstract

University rankings play a crucial role in shaping the perceptions of academic institutions and influencing decisions made by stakeholders. The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), known as the Shanghai Ranking, is one of the most influential global university rankings currently published. Due to that, the methodology behind this ranking often comes under scrutiny. Two methodological steps of the ARWU ranking that attract researchers' attention are the weighting scheme and indicator selection process. In this paper, we conduct a sensitivity analysis of the ARWU ranking by systematically removing individual indicators and distributing their weight to the remaining indicators. Our results show that the ranking is sensitive to the removal of the indicator related to the number of staff of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (Award). At the same time, removing the indicator related to the institution's per capita academic performance (PCP) led to slight or no changes in the ranks.