Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine five evaluation models constructed by different normalization and aggregation methods in terms of the volatility of rankings and rank reversals. We also explore how the volatility of rankings of the five models changes and how often the rank reversals occur when the outliers are removed. Methods: We used data published in the Complete University Guide 2014. Two universities with missing values were excluded from the data. The university rankings were derived by using the five models, and then each model's volatility of rankings was measured. The box-plot was used to detect outliers. Results: Model 1 has the lowest volatility among the five models whether or not the outliers are included. Model 5 has the lowest number of rank reversals. Model 3, which has been used by many institutions, appears to be in the middle among the five in terms of the volatility and the rank reversals. Conclusion: The university rankings vary from one evaluation model to another depending on what normalization and aggregation methods are used. No single model exhibits clear superiority over others in both the volatility and the rank reversal. The findings of this study are expected to provide a stepping stone toward a superior model which is both reliable and robust.
