Thanks ragdall: the Times article was helpful.

Lists such as this are always highly suspect, since they're often done rather superficially and without credible reporting of the criteria used. I'm not familiar with The Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) cited here, but the Times article does give some information on source and criteria.

A survey of academics for determining who has the best school should be considered about as valid as a survey of National Hockey League players about who has the best Hockey team, perhaps – not to imply that either is invalid, only that understanding the source does limit the legitimate uses that can be made of the result. This survey probably has about as much legitimacy for use by universities in support of their public relations and grant applications, and in some cases public funding, as the numerous similar ones available; and it can reasonably be cited in pub debates about justifications for national pride (or lack thereof).

The Times article indicates that academics were asked to name the "best institutions in the fields that they felt knowledgeable about." This is the least credible part of the published result, since no information is given (in the article) about how they compiled what were undoubtedly disparate results based on individuals in a variety of specialties into a single overal ranking. The Shanghai Jiao Tong survey specific to research universities, cited in the next to last paragraph of the Times article, would potentially be more "meaningful" on this basis. (It's very difficult, though not always impossible, to compile meaningful results from a survey in which respondents are allowed to choose which questions to answer.)

The limited info given doesn't differ much from numerous other recent such that I've seen (Which does boost it's credibility, perhaps?).

John