The position of Hungarian higher education institutions in international rankings, compared to their counterparts from the Central European region
In ARWU 2011 ranking the University of Helsinki and the University of Vienna exceed all the others. The two Hungarian universities are in the middle section, Charles University (CZ) has a better position from the surrounding countries.
Looking at the partial scores we must note the importance of Nobel Prizes and Field Medas: among the best universities we can find almost entirely the ones scoring on the two indicators (Alumni and Award), but for scoring, only one prize or medal is enough for the university.
In Times Higher Education Ranking of 2010 only two of the universities in question can be found among the top list of 200: the University of Helsinki and the University of Vienna.
The sequence of QS 2011 is similar to that of ARWU, except that the Vienna University of Technology is in a much better position, and the Central-European University (Budapest) appears on the list, leaving other Hungarian universities behind. The regional vantage of Charles University is clear.
The reputation of a univesity plays an important role in the ranking method, especially regarding the academic reputation, but besides, the employer reputation has an effect, too. The level of internationlality and the student/staff ratio are also among the indicators. For the QS rankings publication data and research performance are less emphasized, which is a good explanation why the Vienna University of Technology reached a relatively high position – owed to other indicators – and why the University of Bucharest appears on the top list (because of its employer reputation).
The HEEACT 2010 ranking positions are relatively similar, but only one Hungarian university could remain on the top 500 list: the Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest). The ranking based entirely on publication performance favors medical and natural sciences in its methodology, not taking into account the universities’ diversity in subject fields, and the differences in science metrics of the fields, which negatively discriminates universities with a varied profile.
The Leiden Ranking’s European top list shows Hungarian universities in a respectively good position. Among the universities of the region, Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest is superior, besides, the University of Debrecen, Semmelweis University (Budapest) and the University of Szeged are only competed by the Polish institutions. The rankings weighted by the size of the universities show a more balanced picture, but the differences of subject fields still cause some bias in favour of medicine and natural sciences.
Webometrics ranking is led by the University of Helsinki, followed by the Hungarian institutions – a little bit behind Vienna, Prague and Ljubljana – with the strongest online presence of Budapest University of Technology and Ecomonics amongst them. Besides, Eötvös Loránd University and University of Szeged can be found among the top 500 institutions. Webometrics ranking indicates solely the universities’ presence ont he world wide web, nevertheless, the relative positions of the institutions are similar to those of other worldwide rankings.
In SCIMAGO Institution Rankings 2011 the Charles University of Prague has a prominent position: the 132nd rank is an outstandting result, especially if we consider that the ranking is not exclusive for higher education institutions. Among the top 500 there are no Hungarian universities, most of them can be found between the 600th and 800th positions.
Looking at the indicators we may note the results of the subject field performance (NI) and the thematic diversity of the institution (Spe) which reflect more specfic information on the universities’ performance.
The MINES 2011 ranking shows the supremacy of the University of Trieste, besides this only the University of Helsinki could obtain a notable position. Among the top-managers of the most significant large companies the role of the Central-Eastern-European Region is negligible, only two Austrian university could reach the lower end of the top 500 list. The ranks are not independent from the economic situation, the system and the size of the country, it is not surprising that the Italian university of our subjects is outstanding if we consider that Italy is member of the G7.
In sum, we could see that the University of Helsinki and Austrian universities usually hold a higher position, while in some rankings Charles Universitiy also performes well. The Hungarian universities are situated in the middle section, similarly to the Polish ones. Our direct neighbours are left behind, the Romanian, Croatian Slovenian and Slovakian universities rarely appear on the top lists, and if so, their positions are low.
Dr. habil György Fábri (1964) is an habilitated associate professor (Institute of research on Adult Education and Knowledge Management, Faculty of Education and Psychology of Eötvös Loránd University), head of the Social Communication Research Group. Areas of research: university philosophy, sociology of higher education and science, science communication, social communication, church sociology. His monograph was published on the transformation of Hungarian higher education during the change of regime (1992 Wien) and on university rankings (2017 Budapest). He has edited several scientific journals, and his university courses and publications cover communication theory, university philosophy, science communication, social representation, media and social philosophy, ethics, and church sociology.
Dr. Mircea Dumitru is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bucharest (since 2004). Rector of the University of Bucharest (since 2011). President of the European Society of Analytic Philosophy (2011 – 2014). Corresponding Fellow of the Romanian Academy (since 2014). Minister of Education and Scientific Research (July 2016 – January 2017). Visiting Professor at Beijing Normal University (2017 – 2022). President of the International Institute of Philosophy (2017 – 2020). President of Balkan Universities Association (2019 – 2020). He holds a PhD in Philosophy at Tulane University, New Orleans, USA (1998) with a topic in modal logic and philosophy of mathematics, and another PhD in Philosophy at the University of Bucharest (1998) with a topic in philosophy of language. Invited Professor at Tulsa University (USA), CUNY (USA), NYU (USA), Lyon 3, ENS Lyon, University of Helsinki, CUPL (Beijing, China), Pekin University (Beijing, China). Main area of research: philosophical logic, metaphysics, and philosophy of language. Main publications: Modality and Incompleteness (UMI, Ann Arbor, 1998); Modalitate si incompletitudine, (Paideia Publishing House, 2001, in Romanian; the book received the Mircea Florian Prize of the Romanian Academy); Logic and Philosophical Explorations (Humanitas, Bucharest, 2004, in Romanian); Words, Theories, and Things. Quine in Focus (ed.) (Pelican, 2009); Truth (ed.) (Bucharest University Publishing House, 2013); article on the Philosophy of Kit Fine, in The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, the Third Edition, Robert Audi (ed.) (Cambridge University Press, 2015), Metaphysics, Meaning, and Modality. Themes from Kit Fine (ed.) (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).
Mr. Degli Esposti is Full Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Deputy Rector Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Dean of Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna, Head of Service for the health and safety of people in the workplace, President of the Alma Mater Foundation and Delegate for Rankings.
Ben joined QS in 2002 and has led institutional performance insights function of QS since its emergence following the early success of the QS World University Rankings®. His team is, today, responsible for the operational management of all major QS research projects including the QS World University Rankings® and variants by region and subject. Comprising over 60 people in five international locations, the team also operate a widely adopted university rating system – QS Stars – and a range of commissioned business intelligence and strategic advisory services.Ben has travelled to over 50 countries and spoken on his research in almost 40. He has personally visited over 50 of the world’s top 100 universities amongst countless others and is a regular and sought after speaker on the conference circuit.Ben is married and has two sons; if he had any free time it would be spent reading, watching movies and skiing.
Anna Urbanovics is a PhD student at Doctoral School of Public Administration Sciences of the University of Public Service, and studies Sociology Master of Arts at the Corvinus University of Budapest. She is graduated in International Security Studies Master of Arts at the University of Public Service. She does research in Scientometrics and International Relations.
Since 1 February 2019 Minister Palkovics as Government Commissioner has been responsible for the coordination of the tasks prescribed in Act XXIV of 2016 on the promulgation of the Agreement between the Government of Hungary and the Government of the People’s Republic of China on the development, implementation and financing of the Hungarian section of the Budapest-Belgrade Railway Reconstruction Project.
He is the past President of the Health and Health Care Economics Section of the Hungarian Economics Association.
Based in Berlin, Zuzanna Gorenstein is Head of Project of the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK) service project “International University Rankings” since 2019. Her work at HRK encompasses the conceptual development and implementation of targeted advisory, networking, and communication measures for German universities’ ranking officers. Before joining the HRK, Zuzanna Gorenstein herself served as ranking officer of Freie Universität Berlin.
His books on mathematical modeling of chemical, biological, and other complex systems have been published by Princeton University Press, MIT Press, Springer Publishing house. His new book RANKING: The Unwritten Rules of the Social Game We All Play was published recently by the Oxford University Press, and is already under translation for several languages.
