Effect of aggregation of Spanish universities in the Shanghai Ranking (ARWU): the case of the autonomous communities and excellence campuses

Abstract

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) or Shanghai Ranking is a de facto standard to determine the position of universities worldwide. Improving ranking positions has become the goal of universities and governments. No wonder therefore that the aggregation of universities in Spain is nowadays suggested as a mean to raise the international profile of our university system. In this context, the goal of this study was to determine the position that two specific aggregates would occupy in ARWU: universities belonging to the same Autonomous Community, and campuses of international excellence (CEI). To compute the indicators of all the aggregates in ARWU we use the methodology developed in Docampo (2012b). The results of our analysis clearly show the difficulty of improving ranking positions despite the sum of institutions As a matter of fact, the only way to place an aggregate from Spain in the top 100 would be to treat all the Catalan universities as a single institution. As for the CEIs, the more relevant position would be occupied by the HABITAT 5U, BKC and VLC/Campus that would lie in the 150-200 range.