Visualization and Statistical Analysis of Research Pillar of Top Five THE (Times Higher Education)-Ranked Universities for the Years 2020–2023

We conducted an analysis of the research pillar in the top five universities ranked by THE for the years 2020–2023 using data obtained from THE website. To derive meaningful insights, we calculated the average research data for each year across these universities. Subsequently, we compared the research data between the 1st-ranked university and the remaining four universities, as well as between consecutively ranked universities for each year. Our analysis demonstrated variations over these years. Initially, there was an upward trend in average research performance from 2020 to 2022, followed by a decline from 2022 to 2023. Interestingly, we observed instances where lower-ranked universities outperformed higher-ranked ones in specific years. Furthermore, we noted that the inclusion or exclusion of a particular university had a noteworthy impact on the research pillar, leading to fluctuations in the average values, both upward and downward. In our investigation, we also considered the potential influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the research pillar and consequently on university rankings.