Comments on: Same story, different headline

By: Christian

Christian — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:48:21 +0000

Yes, I was thinking might be the reason. I am preparing myself for the high rent! I suppose it might also be similar in the US, with the tradition of studying at universities in small towns and away from home.

By: Andrew Norton

Andrew Norton — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:34:43 +0000

Christian - I think it was a story I read in the Times Higher Ed Supplement, and while I recalled the fact that surprised me I cannot remember much else. At a guess, there is a tradition in the UK of leaving home to study, and there are good universities outside the capital (not least Oxford and Cambridge!). Also, London is very expensive so that would be another incentive to leave.

By: Christian

Christian — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 11:15:19 +0000

The Global University City Index rather “measures cities on their ability to establish strong universities” as reported here: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/05/25/1211653848663.html - I don’t think it actually takes into account factors like accomodation costs for students etc, it’s not a liveability index. I think its easier to construct such an index, common sense would indicate that having London or Boston ranked in the top two is pretty much right. Interesting though how Vienna is ahead of Chicago and New York! Andrew do you know the reason why “more London-resident university students leave it to study than come to London” - I remember reading somewhere that London has the most international students in the world, followed by Melbourne I think, so that probably compensates for the loss of London-resident university students.

By: Andrew Norton

Andrew Norton — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:36:48 +0000

‘Similarly, there is an awful university cities index out there which is supposed to measure the best university cities. One of the winners of that is London. Clearly this survey is not directed at the average student, but it often gets reported like that.’

Indeed, London has a net loss of UK students - ie, more London-resident university students leave it to study than come to London,

By: Leon

Leon — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 10:01:58 +0000

Sorry, I didn’t mean they were developed completely arbitrarily. I used the word “arbitrary” because Andrew has a point about “composite indexes of things that are not measurable on a common scale” — composite metrics involve, like all data summary, a loss of information. I agree that these indexes are measuring something real, but that what they measure is comparatively fuzzy, and league tables are pretty fuzzy as forms of data presentation.

By: conrad

conrad — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 06:14:34 +0000

Leon — the metrics arn’t developed arbitrarily. Most of these surveys are designed to measure factors important to well paid expatriates (housing, environment, work hours, professional salaries etc.), so they are measuring something very real. Generally, someone will have done some qualitative digging around for information that is important to that group.
Of course, when they get reported, no-one actually mentions this, which means that the numbers are sometimes useless to most people. For example, Sydney always ranks high. But if you only earn an average salary in Sydney, it is quite frankly a fairly average place to live, since all your money will go on housing (London and Tokyo have the same problem). Similarly, there is an awful university cities index out there which is supposed to measure the best university cities. One of the winners of that is London. Clearly this survey is not directed at the average student, but it often gets reported like that.

By: Leon

Leon — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 05:52:06 +0000

Sure — and as I pointed out, these best cities lists tend to turn up similar results as well.

All I’m suggesting is that there’s not much qualitative difference between ranking cities and, for example, ranking universities. You develop a metric somewhat arbitrarily, attempting to balance the variables involved, and see what comes out of the wash. If the same examples keep being turned out by independent metrics, you’re potentially measuring something real, if imprecisely.

By: Andrew Norton

Andrew Norton — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:39:06 +0000

Leon - Though subjective well-being research assumes that the range of feelings people experience is fairly similar between people, even if the environmental triggers are very diverse, This creates a common metric for measuring varied experience.

While there are plenty of arguments surrounding SWB measurement, that different methods get similar results and repeat tests also get similar results suggests that they are fairly reliable.

By: Leon

Leon — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:21:39 +0000

What about happiness or quality of life research? It seems as though that’s measuring (or attempting to measure) a similarly wishy-washy concept, just with a sharper instrument. But sometimes blunt instruments are useful for measuring vague quantities, to the extent that they can be measured at all.

Also, as a casual observation, the top ~20 cities in these surveys seem fairly constant (certainly more so than, for example, the top 20 universities in different ranking systems).

By: Andrew Norton

Andrew Norton — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:13:40 +0000

Certainly information about cities is useful, but I’m not sure that composite indexes of things that are not measurable on a common scale are very useful.