Study Abroad Aide Ranking Methodology
Studying abroad is an amazing opportunity but can also be a lot of work. From researching schools to applying for visas, there are many steps involved. Without a great support system to seek references or guidance from, your dream of getting a degree abroad can easily become a blurry picture.
At StudyAbroadAide, we understand the challenges that international students face; thus, we seek to give you the right support along this journey. By ranking more than 8,000 universities according to their performance, value, and affordability, we aim to provide a valuable resource for international students deciding on their next school. Our mission is to provide unbiased opinions about universities worldwide so as to give international students a good platform to start their study abroad journey.
On this page, we are going to discuss how we developed our rankings. We will be listing the factors that we considered in our annual rankings and how we collected our data in every university.
Collecting Data
Since 2021, the StudyAbroadAide Database Team has been gathering information from universities and colleges to build an accurate database of institutions around the world. We have editors who are keen on detailing substantial information from different resource materials. They also consistently oversee the maintenance and quality of the database.
Moreover, we only gather data from official university websites, government websites, and trusted 3rd party websites. Additionally, to maintain reliability, we only collect data from English pages. By doing all these, we aim to provide accurate information.
The StudyAbroadAide Database Team collects the following information:
- Official University Website
- Location
- University Type
- Admission pages
- Tuition fees
- Required English Proficiency Test Scores
- Several courses offered for Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees
How We Rank Institutions
To provide an accurate platform to aspiring international students, we use various factors in ranking institutions.
Reputation
Academic reputation is a reflection of a university’s quality in terms of providing education, research, and experience. It is a measure of how students, instructors, and educational experts perceive the performance of an institution
To measure academic reputation, we collected the world rankings of each university from well-known and credible institution ranking bodies, such as Times Higher Education World University Rankings, QS World University Rankings, and U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges.
International Student Body
In identifying the effectiveness of a university’s educational system among multinational learners, we collect the number of international students enrolled in the said university. The number of international student enrollments per year will gauge how easily adaptable the university’s approach is for international students despite their differing races, backgrounds, and culture.
The international student body population is validated as it is based only on the numbers provided by the official university websites or trusted 3rd party websites.This also ensures the integrity of the data.
Total Enrollment
The total enrollment numbers are composed of all tertiary-level students, including domestic and international students. It reflects the university’s quality, as students are intrinsically attracted to prestigious and reputable institutions. It is based on the fact that top-performing educational institutions produce high enrollment rates.
The total enrollment is collected from the official university websites or trusted 3rd party websites only to accurately compare it with the number of international students enrolled and to establish a ranking methodology based on factual information.
Ranking Categories
We know that students choose a specific university for various reasons. Students may make their choice based on the university’s performance, affordability, and other factors. Thus, we categorized our rankings based on different indicators:
Best Universities
Our Best Universities Rankings are composed of universities ranked according to their reputation, international student body, and total enrollment. Universities that do not meet the minimum criteria are excluded from the calculations.
Criteria:
- The institution must be an accredited tertiary educational institution.
- The institution must be offering bachelor’s and master’s programs or either of both.
- The institution must have an official university website.
Most Affordable Universities
The Most Affordable Universities Rankings aim to rank the universities in a country based on the affordability of their tuition fees for international students. All universities in our database are ranked according to their affordability to derive the most affordable universities in each country. Universities that do not meet the minimum criteria are excluded from the calculations.
Criteria:
- The institution must be an accredited tertiary educational institution.
- The institution must be offering bachelor’s and master’s programs or either of both.
- The institution must have an official university website.
- The institution must have an updated list of tuition fees.
Best Value Universities
Universities with affordable tuition fee rates and excellent academic reputations are referred to as Best Value universities. They are ranked based on their affordability and reputation. Universities that do not meet the minimum criteria are excluded from the calculations.
Criteria:
- The institution must be an accredited tertiary educational institution.
- The institution must be offering bachelor’s and master’s programs or either of both.
- The institution must have an official university website.
- The institution must have an updated list of tuition fees.
The StudyAbroadAide Ranking Methodology is designed to be as accurate and transparent as possible. We hope that discussing how we collect and rank institutions will serve as a guide to students and parents in choosing their institutions.