Ranking of Finnish Universities, 2022

Helsingin tuomiokirkko, Helsinki, Finland.

Rank	Institution	Change from 2021	ARWU	QS	THE	USNWR	Average World Rank
🥇	University of Helsinki (Helsingin yliopisto)	–	92	106	110	99	101.75
🥈	Aalto University (Aalto-yliopisto)	–	301	116	201	273	222.75
🥉	University of Turku (Turun yliopisto)	–	401	291	351	342	346.25
UR	University of Vaasa (Vaasan yliopisto)	NA	NR	NR	351	NR	351
4	Tampere University (Tampereen yliopisto)	+1	401	415	301	400	379.25
5	University of Oulu (Oulun yliopisto)	-1	401	392	301	447	385.25
6	Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT-yliopisto)	–	NR	388	301	696	≈461.66
7	University of Jyväskylä (Jyväskylän yliopisto)	–	701	347	401	520	492.25
8	University of Eastern Finland (Itä-Suomen yliopisto)	–	601	551	601	487	560
9	Åbo Akademi University (Åbo Akademi)	–	NR	601	601	1037	≈746.33

Figure 1. Ranking of Nordic Universities 2022-2023.

This is a ranking of the top universities in Finland ranked relative to each other for the year 2022-23.

Overview and methodology

The ranking was created by using metadata sourced from the four prominent rankings of world universities (each ranking released in 2022): Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), Times Higher Education (THE), and U.S. News & World Report (USNWR).

Rank was determined on each list for every Finnish university ranked on any list. Then for each university all its rank placements were averaged across lists to create the new list of average ranking for each university. The universities were then ranked according to their average ranking. The university with the highest average is thus ranked 1st, the one with the second highest average 2nd, and so on.

Finally, the results were tabled, and are shown above (Figure 1). The leftmost column shows rank based on average, the “institution” column shows the institution ranked, the “Change from 2021” column shows the change in ranking placement from last year’s ranking, the next four rightward columns (ARWU, QS, THE, USNWR) show the rank for each given institution in each of those selected world rankings, and the rightmost column (“Average World”) averages the four ranking lists’ rank placement for each university.

Only universities which were ranked on at least two lists are counted. Universities which would have appeared had they been ranked by all the rankings are displayed in the ranking where they would have ranked if their average rank was the result of an average across all four rankings. Thus, University of Vaasa is shown between the 3rd and 4th ranked universities, as it would have ranked 4th if it appeared on at least two rankings (and maintained its average from the ranking it did appear on). Rather than receiving a ranking placement, universities appearing in these positions (in this case, only Vaasa) are marked “UR” (unrankable) in the rank column, and any university not ranked on a particular is shown as placing “NR” (not ranked) on that list.

Observations

• Overall, Finnish universities have declined in world university rankings in 2022. Whereas last year ranked Finnish universities average sum came out to ~3593.58 (2021), this year the sum is 3695.5 (2022) — a roughly 102 place decline.
• With the sole exception of Tampere University, every ranked Finnish university declined in average ranking placement. Tampere University averaged 380 in 2021, whereas in 2022 it averages 379.25.
• This marks the first year in which University of Helsinki does not rank within the top 100 universities in the world. In a continued negative point for Finnish universities, Finland’s traditionally strongest university — the University of Helsinki — continues to move downward in world university rankings, as it did in 2021. This continues a trend starting in 2015 or so. This year University of Helsinki moved downward from 95.25 (2021), out of the top 100, to 101.75.
• These results indicate that, along with news this year that Finland’s overall higher education level has dropped below the OECD average, Finland faces difficult questions about how to improve its world standing in higher education.

In my opinion, global university rankings are not a measure of how “good” a university is. They are, centrally, a measure of university reputation among people in administrative positions in academics. How good a university is for you depends on what your goals are. It is almost entirely contextual. Thus, the rankings I do — which are based on average placements in world university rankings — ought to be seen not as a measure of how good a university is, but as a measure of the average opinion of an academic administrator you’ll get if you ask them to talk about a given university from a global perspective. In this spirit, I offer you a deflationary university ranking.

If anything appears to be in error, please email me at tuulifunctional@snmcgannon.com.

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