Arts 2090 Visualisation
CORRELATION BETWEEN TOP 50 UNIVERSITIES AND GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT

By Lauryn Petropoulos, Denise Sun-Naranjilla and Elizabeth Middleton

Correlation between top 50 Universities and GDP

What is the invisible pattern we made visible?
The invisible pattern that we’ve made visible is the pattern and connection between countries of high Gross Domestic Product (standard of living) and quality higher education.  By emphasising the highly developed economies on a world map and plotting the World's Top 50 Universities, we are making a statement that education contributes to a country's economic development.

What other patterns are we making visible?/questions being raised by the visualisation
In large regions which are economically developed, specifically China and Russia, there stands no high ranking academic institution against world standards.
-What contributes to their economic growth? Education or other factors?
Are these people going to Western societies/countries where there are Top 50 universities and being educated there? Are the graduates then staying in that country and contributing to that economy? Or are they then going back to their home country and contributing to the economy there?
Areas where English is not the first language, primarily Asia, we see high ranking universities but why is it that students from these countries become international students in Australia and the US?
Free Higher Education for citizens
in Scandinavia and other areas of Europe such as Germany education is free for its citizens.
why does this region lack top ranking universities? Is there a correlation between education being free and being paid for, and trying to relate it to the quality of their respective institutions? For example, the USA (known for expensive tuitions) to say Norway where it is free? T
To an extent, Australia can even be compared through the HECS system it implements which is a middle ground between both systems i guess. could we make the conclusion that by paying for education it means the quality of their institutions are better?

To what extent does it pre-exist our making it visible?/To what extent are we creating it via making it visible?
It pre-exists in the form of data, specifically lists in the form of a ranking system, that if read and displayed side by side may show a connection or a pattern

We are creating this pattern via making it visible to the extent that these connections can be easily distinguished and what is obvious in the visualization doesn’t exist in the raw data alone, it’s only once combined in an easy to read visual way, these connections and patterns are created and a cyclical or cause and effect pattern emerges. 

What difference does it make to publish such a visualization?

The visualisation makes us explore data in ways we couldn't see before.
Although we could assume that the US had the top ranking universities in the world, why is it concentrated in the USA?
Paid tuition = higher quality of education? The hegemonic power of the USA? Top universities in parts of Europe and Asia --> other implications that can be made?
Allows us to look deeper into what factors go into developing economies and can possibly use these conclusions to develop other economies.
What is the USA doing right in terms of education and how their strategies can be applied to e.g. Africa or South America?
Allows us to see in blatant vision the dominance of the USA - the world map is so big, yet all the hats are concentrated in one small part of the picture, thus pays credence to their hegemonic power.

Strength and priorities largely of the western world, to publish such a visualization makes a difference to the way in which people view and compare a cause and effect role of education in creating and maintaining a strong economy and society. 

In what publics does such a visualization intervene?
Governments
Educators
Students
High School
University
Economists

Issues involved, evaluate the strengths and limits of the work the group has done.
 
The weaknesses in our visualization lie in the:
potential for bias present in the data of the university ranking system. Although the criteria for the ranking is extensive and thorough, some of the ranking relies on a university’s reputation, rather how long it’s been around, which doesn’t necessarily correlate with the quality of the education provided in the institution. This discrepancy may account in a small part to the lack of top universities present in the more newly developed countries like Russia and China who both show strong GDP but no top university. 

Looking at what should be considered a world standard for education. it is hard to generalise such an all-encompassing subject. universities are different everywhere, given cultural and language differences, diff degrees of govt exp into education, etc. does this pay credence to the hegemonic power of the USA?

Strengths
The strengths lie in the simplicity of the visualization, by plotting the information on a world map the data really comes to life and takes on new meaning which is easily read.

Sources used when making the visualisation
References and useful links:

Definition of GDP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product

QS Uni rankings used in visualization http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2010

GDP data used in Visualization http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/GDP-ranking-table

QS ranking system http://www.topuniversities.com/world-university-rankings/understanding-qs-world-university-rankings-methodology