%0 Journal Article %T Los rankings de universidades: una visi¨®n cr¨ªtica %A Mart¨ªnez Rizo %A Felipe %J Revista de la educaci¨®n superior %D 2011 %I Universidades e Instituciones de Educaci¨®n Superior de M¨¦xico %X after reviewing the history of university rankings and describing their growth, the characterization of three of the most important rankings internationally is presented, namely: shanghai, times higher education supplement and the web of world universities, these are contrasted with the german center for higher education development system. criteria for such rankings to be considered consistent is then presented, these criteria are applied to rankings in general and to the two above mentioned in particular. thereupon it is concluded that both rankings show severe methodological limitations and thus are not able to justify their pretense of being reliable methods for evaluating universities. %K higher education %K universities %K evaluation. %U http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0185-27602011000100004&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en