Why is research at highly productive research institutions better than those at not-so-highly productive research institutions?

Question

As of time of writing, the University of Oxford is top of the Times Higher Education world university ranking list, while the University of Southampton is 118th. (Nothing special about the THE, Oxford, or the University of Southampton - I'm just picking examples.)

Because a university's research is usually a major factor in these rankings, an immediate implication of this is that as a whole, Oxford's research is "better" than Southampton's. Why is it better? I can think of some explanations:

• Professors at Oxford are smarter than those at Southampton. Obviously the smarter you are, the better your research.
• Professors at Oxford are more motivated than those at Southampton. Maybe they work 24/7 while those at Southampton work 9-to-5.
• Professors at Oxford have more resources than those at Southampton. For example perhaps they have more + bigger grants they can apply for, and with more money, they can hire more students + conduct experiments using equipment their counterparts at Southampton don't have.
• Professors at Oxford are luckier than those at Southampton. They "just happened" to pick topics that later led to massive advances and Nobel prizes, which made them academic superstars. Oxford then gave them very attractive job offers to lure them there. Now it's a rich-get-richer situation - once you are famous, other people read + cite you more too.

Are any of these explanations accurate? Are there other factors I've not thought of?

Answer 1

This is a very interesting sort of question. Unsurprisingly, it's surely not the case that people in one region are naturally smarter than those in another. Once we believe that, it is possible to see how the generally-pretty-uniform-brains of people are "steered" in different ways in different cultures.

E.g., in the so-called anglosphere, there is a bit more encouragement to "make progress", as opposed to "adhere to orthodox canons". For those of us in western europe or north america, this principle is completely unsurprising... but, suprisingly (to us here?), this idea is not universal.

In the U.S., for example, in mathematics, the top universities actively try to "collect" the most creative (by a somewhat orthodox criterion) people. Those unis with good endowments can afford to throw lots of money at this goal. There you are.

But, duh, there are many very good people who are not swept up in status-game issues, e.g., if they're more interested in spending their days doing the thing rather than promoting themselves...

Nevertheless, it does tend to be true that the most innovative ideas are most circulating at high-end places. By my observation, this is only distantly connected to funding or status per-se, but, over the long term, does depend on the local status-culture at the place. This can be populist or not, depending. Some math faculties can, as a group, be amazingly Luddite. People are people...

In mathematics, at least, it is not easy to come up with worthwhile new ideas. In the face of bureacratic pressure to "do new stuff all the time", one way out is to "solve problems" endlessly (which ought to be mostly a spin-off of improved technique, but don't tell the admins...)

Then, after filtering out lots of noise, we do sometimes find that the "elite" places have people who have contributed genuinely new ideas (regardless of PR noise about it, and regardless of many other things... whose idiocy does not subtract from the worth of the thing being ridiculously hyped) may be more concentrated in "elite" places. Partly for good reasons, partly for silly. And don't believe the "press releases"? :)

EDIT: under the principle that comments are ephemeral, I wish to add something of @ElizbethHenning's comment and my affirmation, so that these further qualifications will not get lost: to copy my comment on her comment... Yes, indeed, as @ElizabethHenning comments, it does seem to have been that there's a stereotype of what an "outstanding research person" is, and in science, technology, math, engineering that stereotype is traditionally white, male, and with certain mannerisms...

And this does also fit with other remarks about self-referential-ness: a metric can (supposedly) legitimize itself by basically echo-ing the outcomes of other, prior beliefs (whether explicitly in metrics, or otherwise). That is, if a metric does not find the traditionally-top universities at the top, it's not going to be given much credence.

The true effect is that there is _enormous_inertia_ in belief systems, and these belief systems are essentially institutionalized, in the sense that institutions behave as though stereotypes were facts.

The misogyny, sexism, etc, that occur in STEM fields in the U.S. is all the more stunning because many or even most of the people exercising it do not realize that they are, indeed, channeling belief systems that ... if identified explicitly to them... they would mostly find reprehensible, and silly.

It's the old question "what does a mathematician look like?"... We can all fill in the blanks.

Turns out that the "romantic" mythologizing about "killer instinct" and various other pseudo-macho stuff may not have much to do with actual mathematics... but, gosh, then how we would we [sic] prove our macho-ness?

Too large a topic... but/and it does have a significant impact on issues about rankings, status, funding, and so on.

Answer 2

Your question is a bit circular. The "best" universities are at the top of the list because it's a list of the "best" universities -- however that is defined. :)

What makes a "top" university is largely a rich-get-richer feedback loop: The "best" universities attract the "best" researchers, which makes them the "best" universities. The "best" researchers get the most funding, which helps them do the "best" research. The "best" universities get the most money, which helps them spend more on research.

That explains why older universities tend to have higher rankings. They have had a long time to gradually build up that feedback loop. However, external factors have a big impact -- availability of funding and university management is important, as is the desirability of the location/country. Countries like the UK and US have a lot of good universities because they are attractive places to live and their government provides adequate research funding and, importantly, this has consistently been the case for decades or centuries.

One important point you are missing from your list: Some professors are teaching six courses per year -- they have no time for research. Other professors are only teaching one course per year -- they have plenty of time for research.

Answer 3

An important factor is that "top" universities get more students applying, so they can be more selective about who they admit. Having talented students pushes up standards in general for a university. They are more interesting to teach, so teaching there is more attractive for lecturers, and they ask better questions.

Answer 4

It has already been mentioned that what makes the ‘best’ universities consistently ‘best’ is essentially a positive feedback loop building on a lot of time to build up that feedback. For example, Oxford was founded in the 11th, the LMU in the 15th (moved to Munich in the early 19th), the TUM in the late 19th, Harvard in the 17th, Berkeley in the late 19th and the Japanese Imperial universities in the late 19th/early 20th century. Contrary to that, Southampton wasn’t made a full university until after World War II. However, I feel it wasn’t addressed adequately how the feedback started and how it progressed.

In the olden days, there were relatively few universities and it did not matter much where you were: if your ideas were good, you would be noticed. Universities were considered prestige projects by the heads of state and funded accordingly. Research happened where it happened.

Over time, a few places were considered ‘better’ than others by a combination of factors that all boiled down to pure chance: exceptionally generous funding, an exceptionally liberal science policy or an exceptionally bright professor giving a university a good reputation. Once this process had begun, more researchers would be interested in joining a given place because they also hoped for generous funding, a liberal environment or that the merits of an exceptionally bright professor would shine upon them. This would mean that the universities would be able to be slightly more selective in whom to accept as a professor.

Fast forward a few decades and the reputation of certain institutions had started to grow. A slightly larger pool of candidates which allows the university to be more selective in which professors to hire results in the better, brighter or more distinguished professors being hired. These would then in turn deliver more valuable research, adding to the university’s reputation and increasing the number of people who desired to work there. As soon as publication metrics and external funding started getting really important, this feedback strongly accelerated and left the others behind.

Finally, students would also choose a desirable university rather than just going for the one near home. Originally, this would likely have been the oldest institutions with decades or centuries of tradition but more recently if given the possibility they would want to choose the institute with the best research profile. So again, the ‘best’ universities get a larger pool to choose from, can be more selective in whom they admit and thus have a higher chance of picking the brighter students who would advance research more.

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It is important to note that all of these metrics—while often stated as ‘best university’—should actually better be considered subject or even topic-specific. For example, among German universities one of the go-to places for natural product chemistry would probably be the LUH in Hannover—a university that would usually only be considered also running when it comes to overall research or even overall chemistry.

Answer 5

I think a moderate impact comes from a university in the anglosphere. It is the language of publishing.

Also students tend to want to come to the anglosphere, not the converse. Thus there is a brain drain in one direction. You might think this is just from the research prestige itself but I disagree. E.g. many students want to immigrate to the anglosphere even if they leave research. This is probably not just a language effect but also the culture, business climate, freedom, etc.

Answer 6

The amount of endowment/grants/economic abilities of a school also affects the rankings because if a school gets more grants, that means they may complete more research. For example, there are more than 5-10 professors in very top universities who bring grants to the school and do research with that grant. This automatically affects the quality and quantity of the research. I also agree with previous answers that the language of publishing is English. Technically, if a university is in an English-speaking country, it has more chance to be ranked higher. Moreover, the citation score is one of the most important ranking criteria in THE or QS ranking systems. So, if there is more quality research, there is a high probability that they will be cited more.

Answer 7

Everything else being kept the same, more prestigious research institute have better access to novel information/trend/fashion/politics which allows you to go for the low hanging fruits faster, if this is your sport. This is a variation of one of the comments on the rich getting richer, if you define success at research by collection of low hanging fruits. It is also typically where important meetings involving funding are taking place, which may be of relevance to your work should you be into that sport.

Having worked in both types of places, there are also drawbacks, in terms of excessive competition/ high level of noise/ etc.