On universities ranking: Hype or substance? (original) (raw)
Related papers
2009
University rankings are “hot”. Some universities, policy makers and journalists seem to take them quite seriously. At the same time, however, they are also fiercely criticized. The best known worldwide rankings tend, for instance, to have a strong anglo-saxon bias and tend to give insufficient valorisation to human sciences. Read More Are improvements and alternatives to rankings possible? Should universities care about rankings and let them influence their practices? Parallel to international rankings, research assessments have become increasingly important in several countries. What are the current practices of research evaluation? What are the challenges, obstacles and advantages? How should one assess the quality of research in a fair and equitable way? In this book a number of leading European experts share their thoughts and research findings on these issues. The approach of existing global university rankings is clearly unsatisfactory but this does not mean that all ranking exercises are pointless. Furthermore, we simply cannot afford to ignore the need for research assessment if we want to uphold quality standards at our higher education institutes. Merely relying on bibliometrics is problematic - even if we can overcome the current anglo-saxon bias in citation indices. Both research evaluation strategies as rankings endeavours have most to gain from a multiple criteria approach. The contributions in this book are a selection of papers which were presented at the International Colloquium on “Ranking and Research Assessment in Higher Education”, which took place on 12 and 13 December 2007 at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. The conference was organized within the framework of the annual meeting of the European PhD in Socio-Economic and Statistical Studies and was hosted by the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences and the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management.
University rankings: A review of methodological flaws
Issues In Educational Research, 2020
University rankings have gradually become an issue for concern in the academic community worldwide. Several mechanisms with different methodologies have been developed to rank the universities appropriately. However, some ranking tools have notable issues, especially with the indicators adopted. Some are based merely on research performance, whilst others have focused solely on specific fields, such as science and technology – which could have deprived those in the arts and social sciences. This paper uses a narrative review to highlight a number of inconsistencies in the methodologies applied to rank universities. Five main ranking tools commonly applied to the world's universities are reviewed, namely Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), Times Higher Education (THE), Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), Leiden University ranking and Webometrics ranking. We found that several flaws in the rankings caused inconsistencies in university placings in different rankings. Suggestions for integrating multiple criteria and indicators for better ranking exercises are proposed.
University Rankings: The many sides of the debate.
2014
Within the context of bourgeoning institutions that rank higher education institutions, this paper examines the merits and demerits of university rankings and diverse ranking methodologies.. It explores and presents recent developments and diversification of international rankings and highlights their general trend towards more broadly balanced and multidimensional criteria. The paper concludes that like any other complex endeavour, rankings have their pros and cons but the latter does not justify their abandonment. What is required is public education that builds a discerning user who can optimally gain from the use of rankings while avoiding their pitfalls.
Comparative Analysis for Universities Ranking Systems
Merowe University Journal, 2020
Universities global ranking appears to measure the performance of institutions of higher education through their websites by measuring some indicators such as scientific research, global outlook and presence, faculty staff member, alumni and staff wining Nobel Prizes. This paper describes the history of wellknown international ranking systems and compares four of them to identify their differences. Universities can benefit from these classifications in order to improve their academic and practices and make them stronger. It is very important that universities are interested in innovation and connectivity with the community. We note that universities third mission was not concerned with the ranking systems. The paper found that university rankings systems are accurate if they are made in similar universities or national or regional systems that operate in the same models and similar capabilities. Also, the categories under study did not include criteria to measure the contribution of universities related to industry or provide consultancy and innovations
Pros and Cons of University Rankings
Pros and Cons of University Rankings, 2020
University rankings have been of interest to many specialists, academics, and independent researchers, who are affiliated to educational or scientific institutions. The matter was also the subject of discussion among students at the master's and doctoral levels about the feasibility of these rankings, whether there is any desired practical benefit from them and what the disadvantages of these university rankings are. The aim of this research is to provide a detailed explanation of the pros and cons of university rankings. At the end of the research, I will provide the final results through which institutions of higher education can take the positives and abandon the negatives contained in academic rankings.
TENDENCIES IN DEVELOPING UNIVERSITY RANKINGS AND THE WAYS OF IMPROVING THEM
Problem statement. Globalization of educational environment and educational services market necessitates the development of objective quality assessment tools of such services on the part of their direct consumers as well as on the part of the employers. One of the indirect, but the most common and most accessible to the public tools of education services quality evaluation in the system of higher education is university rankings.
The Expectations and the Actual Framework of University Academic Ranking
Journal of Management Information and Decision Sciences, 2021
University ranking has high open perceivability, the ranking business has prospered, and institutions of higher education have not had the option to overlook it. This investigation of university ranking presents general contemplation of ranking and institutional reactions to it, especially thinking about responses to ranking, ranking as an inevitable outcome, and ranking as a method for changing characteristics into amounts. The researchers present a conceptual framework of university ranking dependent on three propositions and complete a graphic measurable investigation of Jordan also, worldwide ranking information to assess those propositions. The primary proposition of university ranking is that ranking frameworks are differentiated by a serious level of strength, balance, and way reliance. The subsequent proposition joins ranking to institutional characteristic. The third proposition sets that rankings work as an impetus for institutional isomorphism. The end audits some significant new advancements in university ranking.
The International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives, 2017
Recently, many universities have drawn attention to world university rankings, which reflect the international competition of universities and represent their relative statuses. This study does not radically contradict all types of global university rankings but calls for an examination of the effects of their indicators on the final ranking of universities. By using regression analysis, this study investigates the indicator contribution to the ranking of universities in world university ranking systems including the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), Times Higher Education ( THE ), and QS World University Rankings. Results showed that in the ARWU system, three indicators regarding faculty members who won Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals and papers published in Nature and Science and in the Science Citation Index and Social Science Citation Index journals predicted the ranking of universities. For the QS and THE systems, the more powerful contributors to the ranking of uni...