( methodology ) ( Our Team ) ( Above-Average Ltd ) ( The Rankings

The Above Average Academic Ranking of High Education Institutes in Israel is based on data from multiple sources. It is distinguished from many other researches by the use it does in quantity study, quality study and a Mixed Mode method which means the use of a mix of researches.

The survey of "Above the Average", which was used as a major tool for data mining, includes 140 multi-choice questions to evaluate wide aspects of the Israeli Academic learning experience.

The survey questionnaire was built in such a manner that it would withhold the strictest scientific criteria. Pretests evaluated the comprehensibility of the questions, the ability to cope with the tools and the possibilities for responses (for the multi-choice questions). The phrasing of the survey was tested in a pilot study in order to verify that the questions are fully understood and additional quality checks were preformed such as training for the interviewers to avoid interview errors and special attention to phrasing and questions dealing with sensitive issues.

The unprecedented scale of the survey, 8,600 students, is due to the meticulous measures taken to insure the sizes of the sub groups in each category that was surveyed. The Stratified sample includes no less then 30 students from each academic program and in cases of small programs with less then 30 students, the sample taken was not less then 15 interviewers.

The statistical data processing included simple processing such as frequencies and up to complex data manipulations such as Correlations and Factor Analysis, all done of course, with special emphasis on statistical significance levels.

Top priority was given to establish research tool that will be valid and reliable. To validate the research emphasis was given to the content validity - does the research withhold sanity check, construct related validity– meticulous verifications of the link between the research tools to the theory on which research is structured on, and on convergence validity – compression of the gathering received by the study conducted to gatherings received by additional valid research tools (such as the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics or the Israeli Council for Higher Education)

Research reliability was examined in a method of reliability as stability (test retest) - to what extent do repeated measurable, given equal conditions, bring to the similar results and reliability “between judges" – whether different researchers in the partial studies that were done by academic institutions in Israel yielded similar results. For that reason it great measures were taken to receive reactions to the findings from students, heads of learning programs, deans of Universities and heads of Universities.