Abstract
The study is dealing with the analysis of universities scores and indicators used in the most significant (and also the most influential) world university rankings published in 2012. The aim of the study is to contribute to maximal utilising of information published in world university rankings in order to assess the objectivity to institutions and their variously defined groups (and of course also from the view of the Czech Republic).
It is therefore a detailed analysis of individual indicators of world rankings of universities in order to discuss what types of institutions are gaining or losing in rankings. As a basis for analysing results the joint database of all institutions and values of all the indicators published in four world university rankings ARWU (Academic Ranking of World Universities ), QS (QS World University Rankings), THE (THE World University Rankings) and SIR (Scimago Institutions Rankings) in 2012 was created.
The database allows the analysis of relationships between indicators of different rankings and also the assessment of the impact of individual indicators on different groups of universities. The study compares the effect of the size, the focus, the age and the research activity level of institutions on the results in the four most significant world rankings of universities.
In addition a comparison of significant associations of universities (COIMBRA, EUA, EUROPAEUM, LERU, UNICA, UNIVERSITAS 21) on the success of their member institutions in ARWU, QS and THE rankings was realised.