Global university rankings - a comparative analysis

Over the last years, the global university rankings appeared in order to measure the performances of higher education institutions from all over the word after some pre-established indicators. The rankings make it possible to evaluate complex information according to various combinations of various factors. In this paper, I described and analyzed three of the most known, influential and widely observed international university rankings, in order to identify the similitudes and especially the differences between them regarding the methodology, criteria and weights, top universities, research and educational process or the global outlook, using the public and available information from their web-sites. Also, I want to see the impact of these rankings and how they influence the stakeholders, which are winners of each of these global university rankings, from want countries or regions. Global university rankings tend to focus more on the research area and less on teaching and learning environment. After the results of these rankings and others, all universities whether small or large, can improve practices that will make them stronger. For the contemporary society it is also important for a university to be able to innovate and help industry and businesses with consultancy and innovations. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.