China Subject Ratings 2021: methodology

Browse the full results of the China Subject Ratings 2021

The Times Higher Education China Subject Ratings are the only performance tables that judge Chinese institutions against their global peers based on the Chinese Ministry of Education’s classification of subjects. The ratings measure research-intensive universities across all their core missions: teaching, research, international outlook and knowledge transfer. We use 11 carefully calibrated performance indicators, listed below, to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons, trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and governments. With 89 subjects included, the ratings provide grades across more subjects than any other major rankings or ratings provider.

The performance indicators are grouped into five areas: teaching (the learning environment); research (volume, income and reputation); citations (research influence); international outlook (staff, students and research); and industry income (knowledge transfer).

The data used for the THE China Subject Ratings 2021 are drawn from the THE World University Rankings (WUR) 2021, the THE China Reputation Survey 2021, the THE Academic Reputation Survey 2019 and 2020, and Elsevier bibliometrics. We have published 12 pillar-level ratings, which measure performance against 89 subjects in total. We have also published an overall table that provides an overview of how institutions have performed across the different areas.

The metrics

Teaching (the learning environment)

• Reputation survey (teaching)
• Academic staff-to-student ratio
• Institutional income per academic staff member

Research (volume, income and reputation)

• Reputation survey (research)
• Research income per academic staff
• Publications

Citations (research influence)

• Field-weighted citation impact

International outlook (staff, students and research)

• Proportion of international students
• Proportion of international academic staff
• International co-authorship (proportion of international publications)

Industry income (knowledge transfer)

• Research income from industry and commerce per academic staff

Metric weightings

The metric weightings for each subject are calculated in line with the related subject weightings used in the WUR.

Grade production

Once the overall scores have been produced, a grade is calculated for each university within each subject using a grading system of A+ to C-. These grades are evenly split across the ranked universities across the world, such that the top 11.11 per cent of world universities in a subject receive an A+, the next 11.11 per cent receive an A, etc.

Reputation survey

A survey was sent to 160,000 published and cited Chinese academics in the first quarter of 2021. We asked them to nominate the universities in China that they perceive to be the best for teaching and research in their field (they could name up to 10 institutions for teaching and up to 10 in research).

Each year, we also send an annual survey to a sample of global academics randomly selected by Elsevier, in which we ask them to nominate the universities across the world that they perceive to be the best for teaching and research in their field (they can name up to 15 institutions in each category). We combined the 2020 and 2019 results for use in the ratings.

The reputation survey scores for institutions within China were based on the scores from the global survey combined with a weighted version of the mentions they received in each category for the China-specific survey. Universities outside China were given reputation survey scores based on the global survey only.

Subjects included

China’s Ministry of Education categorises 111 subjects across 13 pillars. The ratings measure performance across 89 of these subjects within 12 pillars. These pillars are:

• Agriculture
• Arts
• Economics
• Education
• Engineering
• History
• Law
• Literature
• Management
• Medical
• Philosophy
• Physical Science

We excluded 14 subjects because they had a strong military and/or national security theme, while a further seven subjects were excluded because they were too specific to China and therefore difficult to compare internationally. We also excluded law because we did not have sufficient data for the international comparisons.

Exclusions

There are four key criteria for universities to be included in the subject ratings:

• They must be included in the WUR 2021 
• They must have been eligible for the subject rankings related to the WUR 2021
• Outside of China, they must have selected the relevant detailed subject during the WUR 2021 submission. Within China, there must be evidence they teach the relevant subject
• They must meet a minimum threshold for the number of papers published between 2016 and 2020 for each specific subject

Universities that meet these four criteria are included in the ratings for a given subject. All institutions that feature in at least one of the subjects are included in the overall table, which is designed to provide an overview of performance across the different subjects. 

Subject calculation examples

Education

Of the 90 Chinese universities in the China Subject Ratings, 38 provided evidence that they teach courses in the Education subject as defined by the Ministry of Education. Of these 38 universities, nine were eligible for a grade based on them having entered data in the World University Rankings for the Education subject, and having a sufficient number of research papers in the years 2015 to 2020. Globally, 529 universities were eligible for a grade.

The grades are awarded based on an underlying score built from the above 11 metrics. For Education, the citation score (which is based on the number of citations per published paper) accounts for 30 per cent of the overall score. Research reputation and teaching reputation account for 23 per cent and 19 per cent respectively. The remaining 28 per cent of the score is made up from the other eight metrics.

The following table shows the scores achieved in each metric for the six Chinese universities that received an A grade:

Focusing on the citation scores based on Elsevier’s bibliometric data, three Chinese universities score above 80: Peking, Tsinghua and South China Normal. East China Normal also scores highly with 75.5.

In reputation, four universities score above 80 for research reputation, and five for teaching reputation; these universities are clearly highly regarded both within China and in the wider global community of academics within Education.

Multiplying all the scores by their “metric weights” and adding them up gives the overall score for each university. These scores are then ordered against all universities’ Education scores. The top 11.1% receive an A+, the next 11.1% receive an A, and so on.

Two institutions score above 80 in the three most prominent metrics – Tsinghua and Peking – which, along with their other scores, results in them receiving a grade of A+ for Education. Beijing Normal and East China Normal also score an A+ as they too are in the top 11.1% of scores.

Stomatology (dentistry)

Of the 90 Chinese universities in the China Subject Ratings, 19 provided evidence that they teach courses in the Dentistry subject as defined by the Ministry of Education. Of these 19 universities, 17 were eligible for a grade based on having entered data in the related World University Rankings subject, and having a sufficient number of research papers in the years 2015 to 2020. Globally, 463 universities were eligible for a grade.

For Dentistry, the citation score accounts for 20 per cent of the overall score, while research reputation and teaching reputation account for 21 per cent and 16 per cent respectively.

The overall number of papers accounts for 7.8 per cent of the score, and research income per staff member 7.9 per cent. The remaining 27.3 per cent of the score is made up from the other six metrics.

The following table shows the scores achieved in each metric for the 17 Chinese universities:

Two Chinese universities score above 89 for citations: Jilin and Capital Medical. For reputation, two universities score above 89 for research reputation, and four for teaching reputation.

Multiplying all the scores by their “metric weights” and adding them up gives the overall score for each university. These scores are then ordered against all universities’ Dentistry scores. The top 11.1 per cent receive an A+, the next 11.1 per cent receive an A, and so on.

Five institutions achieved an A+ grade. However, it is worth noting that neither of the two institutions that receive very high citation scores achieved an A+ due to their relatively low reputation scores.

To support your understanding of your institution’s performance in the THE China Subject Ratings, we are organising a CSR clinic on 16-21 May. Contact Joyce Chee (joyce.chee@timeshighereducation.com or WeChat ID +6596936284) or Sophia Li (sophia.li@timeshighereducation.com or WeChat ID Sophialisg) for more information.