By Ruth A Pagell*
(22 Sep 2026) The first Ruth’s Rankings was published in July 2014 with support from Clive Wing. In the first issue I wrote “ I will look at rankings through the eyes of a practicing academic librarian and LIS instructor with special emphasis on Asia.” It is now 12 years and 120 articles later. The readership has expanded along with changes in international higher education. Even when I started this column, it was fashionable to criticize the rankings and the profit-making companies that produce them (Hazelkorn). It is not unusual for profit-making organizations such as Fortune and Financial Times to publish annual rankings of business programs.
Today, AI and its impact on research methodology and information integrity is more important than rankings. Given my background as an early online searcher, starting in 1980, I recognize how difficult and limited those early search capabilities were. Bibliographic databases are costly and not that easy to search. With my personal anti-AI bias, I will let everyone else write about AI. Ruth’s Rankings will continue to focus on old and new rankings and issues arising from changes in the global education marketplace, with an emphasis on Asia. I just finished listening to part of a webinar on apprenticeships and am wondering where they fit into the new learning environment.
After RR68, Ruth’s Rankings will be published quarterly. I will continue to supply Access with links to relevant articles on higher education and research.
RR 68 is in three parts. I promised less focus on rankings from Times Higher Education. I should not have promised. Part One is a brief look at Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings, 2026. Part Two introduces a new ranking from TIME magazine and Statista, World’s Top Universities of 2026. Part Three introduces a new rankings organization, measuresHE, created by former Times Higher Education ranking data staff. Ruth’s Rankings 69 will cover measuresHE in more depth.
PART ONE: ASIAN RANKINGS
Ruth’s Rankings has been covering Asia since its introductory year of 2014. It also published special reports on Malaysia (RR 24), India (RR 22), Japan (RR28), ASEAN (RR 43), East Asia (RR 52) and as part of QS regions (RR 58).
Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2026
The 2026 version includes the same 929 Asian universities from 36 countries including the Middle East that are in the world rankings.
“China’s ongoing strength means small gains for countries like Japan and South Korea are not enough for them to remain competitive. Meanwhile, Malaysia proves it is one to watch.” (Mosheim). The Research Income pillar is singled out as a controversial indicator because it can be influenced by national policy and economic circumstances. This has become a very obvious issue in looking at current research income in the U.S.
Since the regional rankings include the same universities as the world rankings with similarity in top ranked universities on each pillar, I see no reason to use this ranking.
Mosheim, T. (23 April 2026). Asia University Rankings 2026: results announced https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/asia-university-rankings-2026-results-announced
QS World University Rankings: Asia 2026 explore top universities in Asia
The QS World University rankings include 562 Asian entries. The most recent QS Asia list has 1534 universities. The Middle East is excluded. These rankings are useful for benchmarking since they are further divided by sub-regions as shown in the example below.
EXAMPLE 1: QS Asian rankings leaders by subsets
| RANKINGS by Subset | # of Unis | Top University by subset | Asia Rank | World Rank |
| Asian Overall | 1534 | U Hong Kong | 1 | 11 |
| Southeastern Asia | 255 | NTU & NUS (Singapore) | 3 | 8 & 12 |
| Southern Asia | 486 | Indian Inst of Tech Delhi | 59 | 118 |
| Eastern Asia | 719 | U Hong Kong | 1 | 11 |
| Central Asia | 74 | Farabi U | 38 | 177 |
The basic methodology is the same across the world and regions, with modifications to meet the needs of the region. I personally prefer the QS regional ranking, since it includes sub-regions and universities not covered in its world rankings and uses different indicators.
QS World University Rankings: Asia 2026 https://www.topuniversities.com/asia-university-rankings
See Table 1 at the end of the article with rankings with the top universities in THE Asia, QS Asia, and TIME/Statista.
PART 2: TIME MAGAZINE AND STATISTA WORLD’S TOP UNIVERSITIES
TIME magazine was founded in 1923 in New York and is not related to Times Higher Education, with headquarters in the UK.
There are three introductions to this new ranking, one from two professors, the second from TIME magazine’s staff and a third article in The Atlantic, a magazine for “intellectual, serious, analytical” readership. This ranking is designed for a narrow target audience, trying to measure the impact of universities on success in business. Emphasis is on the U.S. Ivy League.
Methodology
Inclusion required the university to be over three years old, offer bachelor’s degrees, and enroll more than 2,000 students. It should be driving global change through sustainability, innovation, and social impact. In addition it should have:
- At least one highly cited researcher from Clarivate
- Among most renowned and frequently mentioned institutions
- Applied to open call on Time.com
Universities are ranked on three Pillars (broad categories)
- Academic capacity & performance
- Innovation & economic impact
- Global engagement
I spent too much time on this product. In addition to using primary data from the institution they used data from global sources and national datasets. Readers interested in accessing more data can use Statista. I wanted to feel confident in my conclusion that this ranking is not for most of our core audience. The country coverage is limited to 37 nations. The United States, with over 100 universities, dominates the rankings, followed by China, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Its more specific focus for the United States is the “Ivy League plus four.” The Ivy League refers to eight East Coast universities established before the 1900s. The “League” refers to the sports cohorts.
Table 1: Comparing U.S. Ivy League plus four, Times Higher Education, and two versions of U.S. News & World Report.
| STATISTICA: The Ivy league plus four compared to Times and US News Rank | ||||
| University | STATISTICA | TIMES | US NEWS US | US NEWS WORLD |
| Yale | 2 | 10 | 5 | 8 |
| Stanford | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| MIT | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Chicago | 5 | 15 | 6 | 25 |
| Harvard | 6 | 5 | 3 | 1 |
| U Pennsylvania | 10 | 14 | 7 | 17 |
| Princeton | 11 | 3 | 1 | 14 |
| Duke | 14 | 28 | 7 | 30 |
| Cornell | 16 | 18 | 12 | 13 |
| Brown | 50 | 65 | 13 | 144 |
| Dartmouth | 61 | 180 | 13 | 331 |
| Columbia | 63 | 20 | 15 | 10 |
Red: Not part of the Ivy League
Being lazy, I actually used my hated AI to ask about the gap in rankings for Dartmouth and received a helpful answer that Dartmouth was known for its undergraduate education. Dartmouth is an example that it is advisable to use more than one ranking and to understand what the different rankings are measuring.
As I wrapped up this evaluation, I read that future listings will be released with different data sources and metrics.
TIME Staff (Jan 2026). How TIME and Statista Determined the World’s Top University
https://time.com/7346375/worlds-top-universities-methodology-2026/
New rankings are being added.
PART 3 COUNTRIES: measureHE
In RR67 I stated that I personally believed that a country’s level of academic freedom should be considered when ranking its universities. Should a university be number one in the world if its government sets boundaries for its researchers, encroaching on academic and research integrity.
A new rankings organization, measuresHE, formed by previous members of the Times Higher Education data team, has set up their own rankings with the focus on countries. They state that their methodology “will evaluate and rank national higher education systems globally based on their research output, international integration, demographic investments, academic integrity and sustainability.” Table 2 is a customized table on Southeast Asia.
TABLE 2 Customized Table on SE Asia
| Rank | Name | Research | Openness | Global Standing | Academic Integrity |
| 1 | Hong Kong | 2 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| 2 | Singapore | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2 | South Korea | 4 | 2 | 5 | 3 |
| 4 | China | 1 | 13 | 1 | 14 |
| 5 | Malaysia | 6 | 4 | 6 | 7 |
| 6 | Japan | 7 | 12 | 4 | 15 |
| 7 | Taiwan | 5 | 10 | 7 | 5 |
| 89 | Macao | 8 | 3 | 8 | 13 |
| 10 | Thailand | 9 | 11 | 9 | 8 |
| 11 | Viet Nam | 10 | 9 | 11 | 6 |
| 12 | Indonesia | 11 | 15 | 10 | 9 |
| 12 | Brunei Darussalam | 12 | 8 | 12 | 12 |
| 13 | Philippines | 13 | 14 | 13 | 11 |
| 14 | Cambodia | 14 | 5 | 15 | 1 |
| 14 | Mongolia | 15 | 6 | 14 | 9 |
Resources:
QS. QS Asia Region Rankings. QS. https://support.qs.com/hc/en-gb/articles/4403784242322-QS-Asia-Region-Rankings
Ruth’s Rankings 29. “From Bibliometrics to Geopolitics: An Overview of Global Rankings and the Geopolitics of Higher Education.” https://librarylearningspace.com/ruths-rankings-29-bibliometrics-geopolitics-overview-global-rankings-geopolitics-higher-education-edited-ellen-hazelkorn/
Hazelkorn, E., ed. (25 September 2017). Global Rankings and the Geopolitics of Higher Education. Routledge.
Mosheim, T. (23 April 2026). “Asia University Rankings 2026: Results Announced.” Times Higher Education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/asia-university-rankings-2026-results-announced
Times Higher Education. Asia University Rankings 2026: Methodology. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/asia-university-rankings-2026-methodology
Statista. https://www.statista.com/
Ruth’s Rankings
A list of Ruth’s Rankings and News Updates is here.
*Ruth A. Pagell is emeritus faculty librarian at Emory University. After working at Emory, she was the founding librarian of the Li Ka Shing Library at Singapore Management University and then adjunct faculty [teaching] in the Library and Information Science Program at the University of Hawaii. She has written and spoken extensively on various aspects of librarianship, including contributing articles to ACCESS – https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3238-9674
