Research university ranking based off of just university quality

@purpletitan, note that I said “may or may not” correlate.

At its most simple level, academia tends to value the ability to create and disseminate knowledge most highly, while industry tends to value the ability to apply knowledge most highly. Somewhat different goals, but it makes for a good symbiotic relationship.

Computer Science (in contrast to some fields of engineering, for example) makes for an interesting case.

On the software side of the world of computers, the medium you are working in is “virtual” rather than “real”, so the difference between knowledge built upon studying theory vs. the knowledge built upon “real-world” experience is less pronounced.

I would caution that even on the software side of the world of computers there are many application segments. Since an industry segment tends to be more granular than an academic department, a university that has a single, strong program that happens to align with a company’s application segment can be regarded as highly (or even more highly) than another university that is ranked more highly by academia - just due to the effects of averaging. The potential for divergence becomes even greater as the granularity of the rating system decreases.

I would also caution that there are many types of jobs within a segment. Different jobs require different mixes of breadth of knowledge vs. depth of knowledge as well as different mixes of analytical skills vs. people skills. Colleges tend to have reputations in this dimension as well.