UNI reputation vs ranking

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  1. #1

    Join Date
    Mar 2008
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    Question UNI reputation vs ranking

    Hi all,
    I have been reading several posts asking for a university's reputation in HK and its international ranking as well.
    Like- ...I'm going to apply at CityU but I'm not sure if it is a good one ...-

    Let's take this example, according to THES the CityU is ranked #149 in the world. In my humble opinion not quite bad. Though, according to the opinion of the majority of the answers, CityU is not considered among the best UNIs in HK.

    Obviously, the judgements differ from each other tremendously.
    Please tell me how such a deviation may occur and if possible state reasons for it.

    THX
    Eddi


  2. #2

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    THES and other rankings are based on peer reviews that do not necessarily reflect the actual quality of universities (especially from a student's perspective). If you ever plan to work in Hong Kong, it is definitely better to get your degree overseas or from one of the three local universities with good reputations: Hong Kong University, Chinese University, and University of Science and Technology. I especially recommend these three universities if you are trying to get a postgraduate/research degree.

    Last edited by geo-seb; 05-04-2008 at 01:36 AM.

  3. #3

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    From a student's perspective, university rankings are a pile of shit. Unless you are an alumni of one of the top handful it will make no difference to your employment prospects which university you attended. Peer rating is meaningless really. Research activity tells you what? That the professors are too busy meeting research targets to support the students. Choose the course you want, forget the rankings.

    From a professor's viewpoint it is important as generally the higher the ranking the less teaching you have to do.


  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by Eddi:
    Hi all,
    I have been reading several posts asking for a university's reputation in HK and its international ranking as well.
    Like- ...I'm going to apply at CityU but I'm not sure if it is a good one ...-

    Let's take this example, according to THES the CityU is ranked #149 in the world. In my humble opinion not quite bad. Though, according to the opinion of the majority of the answers, CityU is not considered among the best UNIs in HK.

    Obviously, the judgements differ from each other tremendously.
    Please tell me how such a deviation may occur and if possible state reasons for it.

    THX
    Eddi
    I know of several investment banks that have an unofficial policy of NOT hiring from outside the top 3 HK universities.

    So for certain industries and companies, it does matter what universities you attend.

  5. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by lionrock88:
    I know of several investment banks that have an unofficial policy of NOT hiring from outside the top 3 HK universities.

    So for certain industries and companies, it does matter what universities you attend.
    And we all know how good their decision making is.

    Many large organisations will not take applications from people without a 2:1 or above, regardless of university. The result is generally more important than the university.

  6. #6

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    What do you want to do afterwards?

    I'm doing my PhD at CUHK - which is one of the big three here - but actually this won't matter at all if I look for a job outside HK afterwards. No one in continental Europe has probably ever heard of CU, and no one here has ever heard of my German alma mater, and if indeed any recruiter would base his decision on looking up the universities reputation in a worldwide ranking, I'd very much rather not work there.

    If you decide to work in HK afterwards, you still might look for a program at CUHK/HKU/UST. If you plan just to go back afterwards, CityU is just fine, maybe even better from a students perspective.