Bruce,
Your web server seems to be down.
Also, have you done any work on the THES table? I'm trying to track down
an e-version of last years (well I haven't found a hard copy yet either).
Regards,
Dave
On 16 May 01, at 9:23, Bruce Nelson wrote:
> 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.
>
> *******************************************************************
> 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/
> *******************************************************************
--
Dr Dave Radcliffe
Planning Officer
Planning & Policy Development
Academic Office
Tel: 0121 414 3753
Web: http://www.ao.bham.ac.uk/plan/
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