Rankings are not the only way universities can gain global brand recognition

By Brendan O’Malley – Managing Editor. In our World Blog, William Patrick Leonard suggests that it is not only the research-based universities which can create a global brand, and there is an alternative to rankings to achieve such recognition.
In Commentary, Philip G Altbach argues that developing the OECD’s AHELO system for assessing higher education learning and outcomes is a waste of time and money. Dmitry Semyonov says plans to dramatically cut the number of higher education institutions in Russia are driven by demographic changes and the fall-out from demand-driven growth by whatever means. Nader Habibi says the number of students in Turkey rose by 91% from 2008 to 2013 and the labour market is not ready for that number of graduate jobseekers.
And in Features, Maria Elena Hurtado reports on the questions being asked following a series of economic scandals in Chile, about whether economics courses focus enough on ethics.
Also this week, in a Special Report, Karen MacGregor reports from the Association of Commonwealth Universities and Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association’s conference on ‘research and innovation for global challenges’ held in Johannesburg last week. Read more...