Poland's universities go up in world rankings

Good news about Poland's universities, they're getting quite a bit better:

Warsaw university is now ranked the 338th best university in the QS World University Rankings for 2013, up from 398th last year;
Jagiellonian universityis now ranked the 376th best university in the QS World University Rankings for 2013, up from 401-450 last year;
and both Nicolaus Copernicus university and Wroclaw university are ranked for the first time (in the 701+ band).

Those rankings are strange - no Adam Mickiewicz, despite being ranked 3rd in Poland?

They're still garbage.

If anyone wants to take education and research seriously, they should study in America or the UK.


They're definitely a little flawed. There are some terrible universities on that list that don't deserve to be ranked as well as they are.

Presumably the purpose of this thread is to make fun of Polish universities for being way down the list.

Given that all the top ten are either British or American, would this not suggest an anglocentric bias to the rankings?

Nope: I've personally taught at Polish universities and my Mrs graduated from a couple of them. I'm glad to see that they're working their way up the global rankings.


Do feel free to have a look at the methodology employed: topuniversities.com/qs-stars/qs-stars-methodology

My guess, and it's only a guess, is that this was a (not so) subtle 'dig'.

Yes, obviously it is in my interestst to minimise my professional experience and my Mrs' academic achievements. Thank you for pointing out that that is clearly the smart thing for me to do.

Do you have no comment to make on the methodology employed in this ranking?

Nonetheless, it may also amuse you to poke fun at Poles.


Only that I would be suspicious of a German survey that found all the world's top ten universities to be located in German speaking countries.

There are two possibilities. Either that the English-speaking world is massively intellectually superior to the rest of the world or that the rankings are methodologically flawed with a bias towards the anglosphere.

There are two possibilites. Either that the English-speaking world is massively intellectually superior to the rest of the world or that the rankings are methodologically flawed with a bias towards the anglosphere."

Your assumptions would only hold true if all students at universities in the UK and USA spoke English as a first language.

I should've known someone on this site would accuse the rankings of being anti-Polish lol...

Polish universities didn't do well in the rankings because they are garbage compared to American and British universities. Get over it. I bet MIT alone produces more useful scientific research papers of excellence than all Polish universities combined.

How to measure the quality of higher education?

If the ranking will promote effectiveness of the business sector model then how not to compromise the educational mission in favour of marketable position in the ranking?

Does the ranking mean introduction of a rat-race, this time in the higher education?

Certainly the Germans seem to agree:

dw.de/new-university-league-table-betrays-anglo-saxon-bias/a-4774241

MIT's most famous.... Noam Chomsky on races.

Race to the top: it kills interest, deadens the mind, but makes students more passive and obedient and less trouble.

I imagine that a fair few do.

It's because English speaking countries have easier access to English scientific journals. But it's justified, because scientists who ignore these publications are not real scientists.

There is a world universities ranking from Leiden university in Netherlands They used this opportunity to position this university as the best in the country, by still only 58th place and American universities are taking most of top 50 again: leidenranking.com/ranking

And about Polish universities getting better. It looks rather like fluctuation:

University of Warsaw Rankings
2013 37.8 338=
2012 31.35 398
2009 39.26 349
2008 39.2 342=
2007 39.2 345=

That list seems even more biased than 'the Times' list, with American universities taking all the first twelve places.

As far as I can make out, all the authors of these ranking lists have proven is that those whose native language is English find it easier to get published in publications written in English.

No doubt the same would be true for native speakers of French and French publications.

But all cutting edge inventions are published in English, not French, Chinese or Russian.

those rankings are often not accurate ,it's preferable if you compare faculties and not universities .
for example , if you want to compare business universities , you use eduniversal-ranking.com the official ranking of business universities .

That's why English speaking universities have an advantage, and not necessarily because their research is any better. Supposing research were published in Polish, would this not give Polish universities an edge?

official?


Polish is not the international language of scientists. English became the language of scientists because majority of the best research was lead in English speaking countries. Who doesn't know this language doesn't publish in English journals, but also doesn't do science, because publication has no sense without relating it to the newest publications from the world (which are in English)

But of course that gives advantage to English speaking countries, because there even not so innovative publications are in English journals, while in other countries lower quality publications are in local language. I agree that these rankings overrate English language universities but on the other hand there is no way to do better ranking. It also encourage scientists around the world to publish in English, which is good because make publications available to the world scientits community.

And that is the advantage which puts them at the top of the tree, for now anyway: universities which taught in Latin used to be the top dogs once but....

Having worked with several academics on their articles for international journals and eng-lang publications, I wonder how much is based on the lax attitude some Polish academics have to getting things translated properly. Seriously, some of them don't seem to care what state it's in, as long as they get it in print.

It might also have something to do with young academics having to get their work published in insignificant journals just to get it in print.

And then they wonder why that periodical is never interested in their work again....