Facebook users share fabricated ranking of universities 'with best-looking alumni'

Published on July 15, 2024 at 09:13
2 min read
By Pasika KHERNAMNUOY, AFP Thailand

The Times Higher Education (THE) magazine has told AFP it does not publish a ranking of "top 20 universities with the best-looking alumni" -- contrary to social media posts sharing the false claim in 2024. According to the THE website, the ranking is based on the institutions' teaching, research environment, research quality, industry innovations and international outlook.

"Friday fortune: Chula is on the World Top 20 Universities with the best-looking alumni rankings," read part of the Thai caption in a Facebook post published on March 15, 2024.

The post shared an image with text that read "World Top 20 Universities with the best-looking alumni" and a distinct THE logo visible in the top left-hand corner.

Thailand's Chulalongkorn University was ranked tenth in the false post.

Screenshot of the false post taken on July 8, 2024

The same image has been published alongside the same false claim on Facebook in Thai here, here, here and here.

The Taiwan FactCheck Center also debunked a similar claim shared in Chinese with the same fabricated graphic (archived link).

Comments showed some users believed the ranking was genuinely published by THE, while some users took credit for their contributions to the university's purported ranking.

"Oops!! Now I immediately feel I'm good-looking," read one Thai user's comment.

"It's a good survey to study. IQ is probably not everything. Appearance is also an important factor," read the Thai caption of a Facebook user's post sharing the image.

Not a genuine ranking

Claire Baumforth, director of corporate communications at THE, told AFP by email that the claim was "completely false".

"Times Higher Education would never compile a ranking of this nature," Baumforth wrote.

Keyword searches on Google did not find the purported rankings published on THE's website or in reliable reports.

The magazine's university rankings are published annually (archived link).

Universities are ranked globally based on five key metrics -- teaching, research environment, research quality, industry innovations, and international outlook, as shown below (archived link):

Screenshot of THE’s university rankings methodology and parameter

According to information on THE's website about the 2024 rankings, the magazine's methodology has been tweaked several times since 2004. However, alumni appearance has never been part of its ranking metric (archived link).

According to THE's publication in 2024, Chulalongkorn University received a global ranking of #601-800 and #117 for Asia.

Chulalongkorn University's 2024 rank in THE's World Rankings (left) and in Asia (right).

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