Each year the Times Higher Education Magazine (THE) publishes the results of its World University Rankings. According to the results of the 2019 Rankings, the top 3 performing institutions are the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge and Stanford University.

The Times Higher Education World University Ranking, which began in 2004, is widely recognized as the most comprehensive and efficient system for assessing university performance across 1250 higher education institutions. Among the THE’s claim to fame is its’ comprehensive methodology.

THE uses 13 performance indicators to compare institutions, each of which are grouped into five core areas: teaching, research, international outlook, knowledge transfer, and research influence. Apart from providing a sophisticated assessment of performance across a broad range of metrics, the results are audited by Price Waterhouse Coopers, which make the THE Rankings the only global university rankings subjected to full, independent scrutiny.

Despite the continuing commitment to improving and updating the robust methodology of the ranking scheme, there remains one criterion that has been consistently overlooked in the 15 years that the survey has been running and that is a commitment to wellbeing. To date, there is no metric for considering or assessing the extent to which a higher education institution prioritizes the wellbeing of its’ students.

With stress rates soaring across universities, and an increasing number of students and staff reporting mental health challenges, it is more crucial than ever that higher education institutions start to invest in this area. By neglecting to include any metric for wellbeing in the ranking scheme, these surveys perpetuate the perception of wellbeing as something supplemental to the university experience rather than an integral part of it. Having wellbeing included as part of the university ranking matrix would not only help to counter this perception, it would also provide a strong incentivize for universities to further invest in student and staff wellbeing.

We’ve seen evidence of how specific metrics in the ranking schemes have facilitated shifts within the higher education sector – this is particularly the case in the realm of research impact, where the emphasis on transferable knowledge has led to greater collaboration between industry and academia. In this sense, the rankings community has a real opportunity to catalyse a much-needed shift in how wellbeing is approached in academia.

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