On universities ranking: Hype or substance?

Abstract

Universities ranking systems rose to prominence in the earliest 21st century with no less than three methodologies emerging at about the same time, followed by more several years later. These systems aim to rank universities according to sets of variables, all collected through seemingly scientific methods, including from the world wide web. The concept of ranking itself has both its detractors and proponents, while the methods are even more hotly debated. The most well known ranking methodologies will be introduced and partially investigated.