Publication Details
Abstract
In a single ranking cycle, the number of Uzbek universities appearing in the QS World University Rankings jumped from two to seven. That move seems to be a success, and, by one measure, it is. It also raises a more difficult question, though, that the higher education sector in Uzbekistan has still not been faced with in a systematic fashion: which of the dozens of metrics QS, THE and the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU/Shanghai) actually rewards and which of those have data they can now compete on. International rankings are now de facto measures of institutional quality and have become a key feature of the national higher education development process in emerging systems, while international recognition is also a specific and legally established goal of the Higher Education Development Strategy of Uzbekistan 2030. However, there is no systematic description of the performance data available to the universities in Uzbekistan and how this relates to the specific criteria for which the ranking systems are rewarded. This paper proposes a data-driven mapping of the institutional performance indicators of the sector with the methodologies of the three global ranking institutions QS, THE and ARWU, documents the current ranking position of the sector based on the latest 2026 results, introduces a framework of correlation/regression to determine which of those metrics carry the most predictive weight for the trajectory of the ranking of institutions within the sector, and reports illustrative, framework-level results pending completion of the primary data-collection round. The study not only contributes to the empirical analysis but also provides, for the first time, a systematic indicator crosswalk for the Uzbek context and sets a baseline for future developments for comparison. Findings should be used to guide the data offices of universities, national policymakers and ranking-engagement strategy in the sector.