Novo grant behind Copenhagen ranking

International staff and students may have to hold back on their bragging. Other University stakeholders can take some honour too. The University of Copenhagen’s move up the Times Higher Education World University Rankings table Thursday was also due to large grants from industry in 2010.

Trine Sand, a consultant at the International Office, has now analysed Thursday’s results, and she points to industry income and higher scores on the citations category.

Copenhagen is now ranked 135th in the world on the Times index, up from 177th last year.

International outlook up-adjusted

The University of Copenhagen landed a DKK 885 million grant from the pharmaceutics-oriented Novo Nordisk foundation, followed by a DKK 600 million grant from shipping conglomerate A.P. Møller Maersk’s foundation in 2010. Industry grants influence the index positively.

»As far as I can see, where we have gone forward is on citations, and on industry income. The industry income is due to the large Novo Nordisk grant.«

»Apart from this, the category ‘international outlook’, where the University of Copenhagen does well, has also had it’s weighting up-adjusted in the Times index,« explains Trine Sand to the University Post.

Teaching, research down

Copenhagen has not done better on all scores this year.

»We have gone back on teaching and research, although I am not yet certain why. Research, of course, is based on a peer reputational score,« says Trine Sand.

Trine Sand will ultimately report her findings upwards, to university management, on four key rankings – of which the Times ranking is only one: The other three are the QS – where the University of Copenhagen recently scored a 52nd in the world, Shanghai (ARWU) – where Copenhagen ranks 40th, and the so-called Leiden ranking – which gives several scores.

Bettered by Aarhus

Changes to the Times ranking’s methodology last year were behind Copenhagen dropping down from a prestigious 51st place in the world to a more mediocre 177th last year.

A minor change this year is the weighting of international staff and students at each institution under the category heading ‘international outlook’, and the proportion of research papers co-authored with at least one international partner. Copenhagen scores particularly well on the international outlook category.

The University of Copenhagen is surpassed, yet again, by its Danish competitor Aarhus on the Times ranking this year. Aarhus is 125th.

See the Times rankings here.

miy@adm.ku.dk

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