Abstract (EN)

This paper proposes a critical analysis of the “Academic Ranking of World Universities”, published every year by the Institute of Higher Education of the JiaoTong University in Shanghai and more commonly known as the Shanghai ranking.After having recalled how the ranking is built, we first discuss the relevance ofthe criteria and then analyze the proposed aggregation method. Our analysis usestools and concepts from Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM). Our mainconclusions are that the criteria that are used are not relevant, that the aggrega-tion methodology is plagued by a number of major problems and that the wholeexercise suffers from an insufficient attention paid to fundamental structuring is-sues. Hence, our view is that the Shanghai ranking, in spite of the media coverageit receives, does not qualify as a useful and pertinent tool to discuss the “quality”of academic institutions, let alone to guide the choice of students and family or topromote reforms of higher education systems. We outline the type of work thatshould be undertaken to offer sound alternatives to the Shanghai ranking.