Recently, the QS World University Ranking finally launched the latest 2019 World University Ranking. Once the rankings are published, it is believed that not only major institutions, but also many art students are very concerned, especially those who are starting to prepare for the application in 2020, may be the group most concerned about QS professional rankings. In 2019, QS World University Ranking was released. Can the World University Ranking become the criteria for applying for art study abroad?

Like in natural light, every year we meet students who "choose schools with rankings", not just QS rankings, USNews The Thames and other ranking systems will become the criteria for some students to choose a school: "Don't consider after the top 10", "Just want to apply to the top 5 schools in the UK/US", "Reject the schools that don't appear in the rankings"... The publication of these world rankings is certainly worth paying attention to, but when everyone withdraws from the tense and excited mood, calm down and have a look, Can these world rankings really become the only or absolute standard for school selection?

　　 My answer is definitely no, I do not deny these world rankings, but deny some students' psychology and standards of "choosing schools with rankings".

Take today's QS World Ranking, which we will discuss as the theme. Although QS will give different types of rankings in stages every year: comprehensive university ranking, professional ranking, regional ranking, etc., no matter what kind of ranking, it is only for reference and reference, not for absolute orientation.

In fact, the QS World Ranking itself is the best "rebuttal example", as we all know, AA Architectural Alliance College It is one of the best in the world, and its several well-known alumni almost support most of the achievements in the field of architecture. But when we see the QS professional rankings, even the academic rankings, AA has never appeared in any list. Can we say that AA is not a good school because it does not appear in the ranking? The answer is absolutely no. In addition to AA, so does FIT, an American fashion school.

Therefore, for most students, any world ranking should not be the absolute standard for selecting schools and majors. But at the same time, the annual change of these rankings is undeniable, which deserves the attention of every student, especially the change of schools in the academic field. This is why, when the rankings are published every year, they are concerned and discussed by international students and major institutions.

Next, I will compare the professional rankings of Art&Design and Architecture in QS 2018 and 2019 respectively to see which schools are worthy of attention for art students abroad.

Any world ranking has its own scoring system and evaluation criteria. In the QS world ranking, academic reputation, employee reputation, research cities per paper, research papers and academic reports, H-index/H- Index (the influence of published works and the number of academic citations). In general, it is fair and objective, but I still want to emphasize again that it is not absolutely positive in judging the real academic strength of colleges and universities.

　　 Compared with the Art&Design ranking and Architecture ranking in 2018 and 2019, the top 25 institutions have undergone some changes:

Art&Design

Left - 2019; Right - 2018

Comparison of Art&Design Rankings of QS Universities in 2018 and 2019

2018, 2019 QS University Art&Design Ranking comparison

Screenshot from QS official website

The first is RCA, which is the first place in the QS Art&Design professional ranking for the fifth year. RCA scored 98.9 after integrating the above four scoring options last year, 6.4 points higher than Parsons, the second place; This year, the comprehensive score of RCA is close to the full score, up to 99.1, while the academic reputation is full, 2.8 points higher than the second UAL. RCA continues to win this year. To be honest, it is not surprising that RCA has been ranking first with high scores in the past four years, which is inseparable from the ability and academic strength of Huangyi itself.

One thing that deserves special attention is that Huangyi's ability to update and build academic and education is very rapid. Just like the beginning of this year, RCA announced a part of the plan for 2019 and the future - GenerationRCA, which is a five-year plan and will promote a new academic plan from three directions: "Place", "Project" and "People".

RCA also began to implement the plan very quickly. First, in terms of campus, RCA will upgrade and open Battersea campus and restart Darwin Building; Secondly, more interdisciplinary practice will be integrated in teaching projects; For the last part of teachers and students, RCA opened a new scholarship, and on February 19 this year, the head of Visual Communication was readjusted and replaced.

In the final People section, famous alumni such as David Hockney/David Hockney joined us, which also makes us look forward to the future GenerationRCA of Huangyi.

Screenshot from RCA official website

The ability of Huangyi in innovation and "renewal" is not only reflected in the teaching arrangement, but also in the specific curriculum form. For example, the cooperation majors GID, IDE and Service Design between RCA and IC Imperial Technology, which we often mention, are the most typical representatives. Especially for GID, students can choose different "academic lines" to go to schools in other countries in the world for research and cooperative learning.

The high degree of openness and the innovative consciousness of absolute advantage make RCA a powerful institution that cannot be ignored. The research director of QS also said after the publication of this year's ranking: RCA has academic ability in the field of global art design that is incomparable to other art institutions.

Having said RCA, the next biggest dark horse of QS this year is the UAL, which has jumped from the 6th place last year to the 2nd place. Previously, in 2017 and 2016, the UAL has also been in the 6th and 5th places.

In fact, it is not difficult to guess that the UAL London University of the Arts can make such a rapid progress in the rankings this year, most of which may be due to its new college CCI launched in 2018. This can also be seen from the scores. Last year, the academic reputation score of the UAL was only 87.8 points, while this year it reached 96.9 points, an increase of nearly 10 points.

Last year, UAL launched a new CCI College, which once caused a sensation in the academic and art circles. Although this college is still in the "under construction" stage, it is believed that CCI will also make outstanding academic contributions in the future with the help of the resources of the six schools currently available in UAL.

Except RCA and UAL, the rankings of most colleges and universities have not changed significantly, but here I would like to mention one school - MIT. Although MIT has not changed much last year and this year by comparing the rankings, please pay attention to MIT's Employer Reputation, which is very high, reaching 99.1, higher than any other school before.

Screenshot from QS official website

In my opinion, Employee Reputation can reflect the academic status and teaching ability of an institution in the world from the side, because it refers to the reputation of the faculty in the world, that is, the teaching ability of teachers.

MIT's academic strength and teaching ability can be seen from its nearly full score on Employer Reputation. What's more, in the comprehensive arrangement of QS World University, MIT has ranked first in the world for seven consecutive years. Secondly, the QS world professional ranking is not a specific ranking of a certain major, but a comprehensive strength ranking of similar majors within the scope of Art&Design As the only comprehensive university entering the top five, with its own SA+P/Architecture and Planning College, it has emerged as a new force among many art colleges and has occupied the top five positions for many years, which also shows its unfathomable ability.

In particular, the Media Lab under SA+P/Architectural Planning College, as the birthplace of the black technology that once created Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, Barnes&Noble nook, and holographic digital 3D printing, MIT has always been committed to the multi-dimensional integration of technology and art.

For example, last year, Natural Light and MIT Media Lab Urban Data and Morphology Lab/Urban Data Morphosis Lab reached a long-term cooperation. Students directly entered the Media Lab to carry out project cooperation with MIT students. Two of the projects, "Big Data Visualization" and "Fort Warren Museum and Landscape Design", are based on a high degree of "interdisciplinary". (Students who want to know can click: MIT Media Lab invites you to create black technology of architectural landscape

Having seen Art&Design, let's take a look at Architecture:

Architecture

Left - 2019; Right - 2018

Comparison of 2018 and 2019 QS University Architecture Rankings

2018, 2019 QS University Architecture ranking comparison

Screenshot from QS official website

　　 Ranking of Architectural Design Compared with Art&Design, China is basically a comprehensive university. However, the most surprising thing is that MIT, which has ranked first for four consecutive years, has finally been replaced by UCL, which has ranked second for four consecutive years. The comprehensive scores of these two institutions are only 0.4 points lower. Through the specific score items, we will find that the gap of 0.4 points is mainly in Academic Reputation/academic reputation. In this part, UCL Bartlett proved his excellence with full marks.

Secondly, it is worth noting that Sheffield, which used to be laughingly talked about as a "guaranteed college", has finally entered the top 25. Take a look at the overall ranking changes of Sheffield in recent years. Compared with other "up and down" colleges, Sheffield has been rising steadily, from 44 in 2015 to 21 this year. Although Sheffield is often teased as a "bottom line", the strength of the school's landscape design specialty can not be ignored. Compared with rigorous theoretical research, Xie Fei's landscape design majors are more inclined to practice and operation. It is also a must for most art students studying landscape design, architectural design and other majors.

Finally, today I briefly analyzed the QS World University Ranking in 2019 with you. We will find that in fact, the ranking of most colleges and universities has not changed much, and they basically remain at the same level and strength as last year and the previous years. The several colleges and universities I mainly mentioned in the article, such as RCA, UAL, MIT, can easily see that while maintaining and constantly increasing their strength, they have also been constantly "self updating". No matter the teachers and teaching equipment in the hardware direction, or the teaching system and teaching content in the software design, they are constantly innovating and breaking through. In particular, the RCA, which has the largest change action and maintains the most stable, is very meticulous and has goals for the overall planning of the future school. As an employee of an art study abroad institution, I will also look forward to the great action of RCA in the future - GenerationRCA, and we will continue to pay attention to this big program of RCA for you.

In addition, for those students who are preparing to apply, I still want to return to what I said at the beginning of today. The QS World University Ranking is not the only criteria and review line for your selection of universities, it is just one of the references that can be used to understand the universities. Whether choosing a school or a major, each student should consider comprehensively according to his own situation. First of all, we should make full preparations for research, delimit a general scope of school selection for ourselves, and understand the design style, academic focus, college resources, geographical location, application difficulty, etc. of different countries and colleges in specific majors. I suggest that you can make a big table in the school selection stage, list your own school selection options in the table, compare the above contents horizontally, and then integrate your own intentions to determine 1-2 top target colleges, 1-2 minimum guarantee colleges, and an indefinite number of colleges that can be considered. Secondly, we must be precise in determining the major, because every application season, we will encounter students who "choose the wrong major" because they do not know the specific professional content, and more students who have been halfway through the collection of works find that they have chosen the wrong major. Therefore, whether choosing a school or a major, the early research is very important.

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