Comparing the university systems of Ireland and NZ ….

…. using three university rankings systems

Set out below is data that compares the performance of Irish and New Zealand universities on three of the most widely read university ranking systems – the Shanghai ARTWU system, the Times Higher Education world university rankings and the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) system.  The analysis looks at the relative scores and positions of the ranked universities and also at measures of the spread of university scores in each country.

The Shanghai 2024 ranking.

In the AWRU (Shanghai) ranking, we have calculated the total score of each ranked university and also the Per Capita Performance score (PCP), which calculates the scores on the other dimensions of the ranking and then controls for institution size.

To compare the extent of stratification of the two systems, we look at the range, the inter-quartile range and the standard deviation of each country’s universities’ scores.

Times Higher Education (THE) 2025 Ranking

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) 2024 Ranking

Overall assessment

In two out of the three ranking systems, the leading Irish university is ranked highest across the two countries – the exception being QS. The Irish system looks slightly better overall in the Times Higher Education ranking while the NZ system clearly outperforms the Irish in the QS ranking.

In the ARWU – the most rigorous the of the three rankings, the one most closely linked to research output – the two countries have a very similar average total score. However, in the Per Capita Performance (PCP) measure – which moderates total score by institution size – the NZ universities outperform the Irish.

In each of the listings there is a wider dispersal of scores in the Irish system, whether measured by range, inter-quartile range or standard deviation. That implies that New Zealand has a less stratified university system (at least in the readings from these three rankings).

It needs to be stated, however, that these (and other) ranking systems give not especially reliable measures of performance – see for instance this article and this site for some of the common critique.