Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Bar-Ilan University and Tel Aviv University all rose from the previous year in the prestigious QS World University Rankings for 2015-16, published Tuesday. Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Technion – Israel Institute of Technology saw their rankings drop.

The QS ranking system is based on six performance indicators that “assess universities in four areas: research, teaching, employability and internationalization.” Each indicator is assigned a certain weight: academic reputation (40 percent), employer reputation (10 percent), student-to-faculty ratio (20 percent), citations per faculty (20 percent), international faculty ratio (5 percent), and international student ratio (5 percent).

Ben-Gurion University stood out among Israeli universities, leaping 33 places from the previous report to come in at 259th place. Tel Aviv University climbed eight places to be ranked 203rd. Bar-Ilan University was ranked among the 601-650 top universities (up from the previous report, when it was in the 651-700 group). The University of Haifa did not make the top 700 universities, but is mentioned alongside other universities in the “701 plus” group. Hebrew University dropped 10 places to 148th, and Technion dropped eight places to 198th.