NUS and NTU rankings... Hahaha

[engineermunn]

I don't believe it! NUS is World No. 18th University?

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/041107/5/singapore115660.html

What a joke! :bsmilie: :bsmilie:

 

[imaginary_number]

This was published in the Straits Times a few days ago as well...

 

[reno77]

How about the Indian IIT's ? They are supposed to be as good as MIT.

 

[nemesis32]

I don't believe it! NUS is World No. 18th University?

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/041107/5/singapore115660.html

What a joke! :bsmilie: :bsmilie:

Singapore always have a way with statistics and studies... :bsmilie:

I think dun say 18th in world, maybe we are 18th in asia? By that, it would be an achievement already.

 

[engineermunn]

There's no doubt that IIT is a good uni. But i do have my doubts on NUS being much better than other unis like Cornell, UPenn, Purdue, etc... THerefore I question the authenticity of the rankings.
Singapore seems to be so hungry for all these kinds of top-of-the-world rankings... so 'hao lian' but actually it really means nothing. Do we have to stoop so low to get the attention of the world? tsk tsk tsk....

:nono:

 

[mervlam]

Singapore seems to be so hungry for all these kinds of top-of-the-world rankings... so 'hao lian' but actually it really means nothing. Do we have to stoop so low to get the attention of the world? tsk tsk tsk....

:nono:

:nono:

Ever hear of plans for S'pore to be an Education Hub for the region? How to attract students to S'pore to study if we failed to get attention?

That's the purpose of World-Class Education in NUS and NTU.

Don't be so ignorant. :nono:

P.S. - No comments on the ranking though

 

[Stefen]

It may be a joke to many, but it also shows that such statistics do matter in the long run.

NUS has done a decent job of projecting themselves well in the world front, and you can't take that kind of credit from them. What do you expect, refuse to entertain these kind of global markers and be left behind before 1 knows it?

I will expect more people to complain if nus or ntu were not even in the top 50 .

 

[engineermunn]

:nono:

Ever hear of plans for S'pore to be an Education Hub for the region? How to attract students to S'pore to study if we failed to get attention?

That's the purpose of World-Class Education in NUS and NTU.

Don't be so ignorant. :nono:

P.S. - No comments on the ranking though

That's precisely my point - I think it is just a marketing ploy. THis is mainly to attract 'foreign' students.

IMO, NUS and NTU have got lots to learn from the overseas unis in many ways.

 

[Gosu_John]

That's precisely my point - I think it is just a marketing ploy. THis is mainly to attract 'foreign' students.

IMO, NUS and NTU have got lots to learn from the overseas unis in many ways.

the only true way to judge is to have studied in both (foreign and local) universities to know. :nono:

 

[uris1982]

There's no doubt that IIT is a good uni. But i do have my doubts on NUS being much better than other unis like Cornell, UPenn, Purdue, etc... THerefore I question the authenticity of the rankings.
Singapore seems to be so hungry for all these kinds of top-of-the-world rankings... so 'hao lian' but actually it really means nothing. Do we have to stoop so low to get the attention of the world? tsk tsk tsk....

:nono:

Sorry engineermunn, But have you been to Cornell? UPenn? Purdue? I suppose you studied at NUS right? Ever heard that the grass is always greener on the other side? But have you ever been to the other side? I suppose such "doubts" are seriously hard to substantiate. Statistics are hard to justify. But frankly if you havent been there your statement carries little weight

 

[barracuda]

if you study at some overseas universities before, then you will appreciate the facilities made available to students in NUS and NTU.

 

[engineermunn]

Sorry engineermunn, But have you been to Cornell? UPenn? Purdue? I suppose you studied at NUS right? Ever heard that the grass is always greener on the other side? But have you ever been to the other side? I suppose such "doubts" are seriously hard to substantiate. Statistics are hard to justify. But frankly if you havent been there your statement carries little weight

:bsmilie:
Yo uris1982. In fact I graduated from Purdue and I did my Masters in NUS. I also did summer schools at Stanford and UC Berkeley. Does that mean that my statement carries alot more weight now? :bsmilie:

Whatever it is, having the privilege of comparing the few schools I've attended, NUS is really far from it. For one, the profs in NUS are not too willing to mentor , and always seem to be unavailable. Whereas other lecturers from the other unis automatically leave their contact numbers for all . Talk about quality......

 

[Gosu_John]

jialat both sides got true points

heartlander = proud of our own university
non-heartlander = pragmatic, cold hard truth

so how? my tune: stay true to yourself always...

 

[DeusExMachina]

We all know rankings don't mean much, MIT may be ranked highly for Com Eng but you would not go there to study Psychology, likewise, Rudgers ranks on the top 10 for Psychology but is nowhere near top 20 international rankings. So NUS is 18th for what exactly? How are the statistics computed. Is it a simple average or a weighted average, I'm sure theres some grounds to it, but just needs investigation. No one expects you to stomach the statistics blindly.

But anyway, whats it to you Engineermunn, to berate our local universities? Are you amongst the ones who did not make it in and was forced by default like so many thousand others to be educated overseas?

 

[tygrr_eyez]

:bsmilie:
Yo uris1982. In fact I graduated from Purdue and I did my Masters in NUS. I also did summer schools at Stanford and UC Berkeley. Does that mean that my statement carries alot more weight now? :bsmilie:

Whatever it is, having the privilege of comparing the few schools I've attended, NUS is really far from it. For one, the profs in NUS are not too willing to mentor , and always seem to be unavailable. Whereas other lecturers from the other unis automatically leave their contact numbers for all . Talk about quality......

maybe you had several bad experiences with the profs in NUS, but in all honesty, i've never had any problems with them. In fact, the NUS profs have been more than available to us, givin us not just their contact details so that we can reach them, but are also willing to stop, share a smoke and listen to your questions on their lectures. maybe you were just unlucky or didn't have the chance to have such interactions with your profs.

also, aren't the rankings from an overseas stats board? i mean, marketing ploy? hardly necessary is it, for an institution like NUS?

 

[meng]

From Straits Times:
"For the survey, the Times asked about 1,300 academics in 88 countries to name the best institutions in fields they were knowledgeable about.

The ranking then took into account the amount of cited research produced by faculty members as an indicator of intellectual vitality, the ratio of professors to students and a university's success in attracting foreign students and internationally renowned academics.

.......He also noted that the Times ranking took into account the number of foreign students and top academics.

A fifth of the 22,000 undergraduates and half the 9,000 postgraduates at NUS are foreigners.

Half of its 2,000 academics were from overseas and many were top names in their field, he said."

 

[engineermunn]

aiyoh.. i'm not berating the local unis, and I have no need to feel 'sour grapes' over it. I did have a place in the local unis.. So my conscience is clear on that part.

"So NUS is 18th for what exactly?" is my point also. It just amuses me... it's baffling isn't it? :think:

 

[meng]

Go try step into a LT/Tut Rm/Lab etc in NUS/NTU/SMU etc and find for yourself whether they have improved over the years.
And my post above has listed some of the criterion in the rankings, so please judge for yourself.

aiyoh.. i'm not berating the local unis, and I have no need to feel 'sour grapes' over it. I did have a place in the local unis.. So my conscience is clear on that part.

"So NUS is 18th for what exactly?" is my point also. It just amuses me... it's baffling isn't it? :think:

 

[Prismatic]

From Straits Times:
"The ranking then took into account the amount of cited research produced by faculty members as an indicator of intellectual vitality, the ratio of professors to students and a university's success in attracting foreign students and internationally renowned academics."

Actually guys, university rankings like these should be taken with more than a grain of salt. Honestly, the main question is how these rankings will apply to us instead of arguing about the veracity of the rankings.

Honestly, if you look at the ranking criterias, you should see that these rankings are performance-orientated. It says nothing much about the quality of education in relations to students.

For example, "amount of cited research produced by faculty members as an indicator of intellectual vitality". This says nothing about the level of students participation in the research.

Another one;"university's success in attracting foreign students and internationally renowned academics". This is largely based on the attractiveness of the school's programme for foreign student like foreign student school fees, rebates, ease of accomodation etc etc. This has little inference to the quality of studies in the school. They do not differentiate how the international academics contribute to the school, ie in research or in academic duties.

Even performance-orientated ranking can be misleading. For example, if the quality of students was based on the percentage of honour students, NTU will probaby rank higher than NUS. This is because most of the NTU engineering courses are direct-honours courses. Does this then mean that NTU produces a better batch of students every year than NUS?

How about the variety of courses at the school?
The comfort level of on-campus accomodation?
Availabilty of facilities and staff? (computers, test machines etc etc)
Assessment system in the school?

The point is, there's no way to determine whether the quality of education at a school is good without doing your homework. Academic performance of the university is a necessary condition of the quality of education BUT it's not exactly a suffficient condition.

 

[icer]

I am not sure where some of you are so against the ranking results.

Firstly, we all know that such rankings or surveys can't be 100% accurate and even if it is not, it should not be too far off since it is published worldwide. And also it was not done by Singaporeans so what do you mean by "Singapore always has it's ways in such rankings?"

If NUS is not the 18th university, then wouldn't NTU be worse off than 50th? I am not sure why we are not supporting our own university in the first place. And so far, I dun think we know the details of the ranking details and what it is based on so what grounds can we believe or disbelieve the results?

Personally, I was in NUS for 3 years and it had provided me with the most fulfiling 3 years in my studies so far. I do not have the advantage of studying in other universities overseas so I have no grounds for any comparison.

But, I do support the ranking results and even if the results show that NUS is far away from the cream of the crop, I will still like it as my favourite university.

:thumbsup: