We are puzzling over the algorithm used by The Times to calculate the
scores in the league tables for individual subjects. I am wondering
whether anyone has either figured this out or obtained it from the
newspaper and would be willing to make details available.
What has particularly prompted our concerns are the figures for
Veterinary Medicine. I would argue that there is probably no subject
within the University sector where there is less variation between
individual institutions, yet The Times has produced a league table
where the bottom institution (Edinburgh) gets less than a third of
the score of the top institution (Bristol). On the basis of the
detailed information they have used the explanation for this would
appear to be entirely that the A-level points score for Bristol is
29.4 whereas that for Edinburgh is only 28.9. Indeed the position
gets more curious on further examination. Liverpool scores almost
twice the Edinburgh score despite performing at the same level in TQA
and "worse" on RAE and A-level points scores. We had thought that
the explanation might be that The Times was simply ignoring the
different Scottish TQA system, a problem inherent in many newspaper
league tables. However this does not explain why Glasgow's score is
so much better than Edinburgh's.
It is also instructive to compare some of the scores across subjects.
For example the Edinburgh score in Medicine is nearly 3 times that
in Veterinary Medicine although there is not much difference in the
raw data.
Bruce
PS we hope to mount our usual league table critique within the next
few days (at http://www.planning.ed.ac.uk/Pubdocs/Tables.htm). As
always, we are very happy to receive further comments on particularly
tables for incorporation in our commentary.
This e-mail has been prepared using voice recognition software.
I apologise if any transcription errors have not been picked up.
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D B Nelson
Director of Planning
University of Edinburgh
Old College, South Bridge
Edinburgh, EH8 9YL, Scotland
mail: [log in to unmask] voice: +131-650 2131 fax: +131-650 9127
http://www.planning.ed.ac.uk/
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