By . Thirty-three journals have been given the coveted “world elite” ranking in an influential and hotly debated league table. More...
Rankings and Quality Assurance: Do Rankings Measure Quality?
By Ellen Hazelkorn. The growing influence of academic rankings
Over the last decade, rankings have become a significant force impacting on and influencing higher education, students and parents, policymakers, and other stakeholders. While they have been part of U.S. academic system for 100 years, global rankings are a more recent phenomenon.
The arrival of global rankings coincided with the intensification of competition in the international economy and increasing crossborder student mobility. They have also fulfilled an information deficit. While there are various evaluation and benchmarking instruments around, there has been growing dissatisfaction with the robustness of these tools. By placing higher education institutions (HEIs) within a wider international and comparative framework, rankings have managed to say something about quality in a simple, accessible and provocative way.
Today, there are ten major global rankings. The most well-known are: Academic Ranking of World Universities (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China), QS World University Rankings (Quacquarelli Symonds, UK), THE World University Ranking (Times Higher Education, UK), and U-Multirank (European Commission, Brussels). U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges has been around since the mid-1980s, and recently launched its global version, Best Global Universities Rankings. Around the world, there are over 150 country-based or specialist rankings – and the number is growing. This includes rankings which measure and compare performance at the institutional and discipline level, and those which focus on societal impact, value-for-money and affordability, environmental awareness, etc. Some rankings specialize on regional comparisons for Asia, Latin America or Middle East and North Africa countries. There are also a small number of system-level rankings. With some exceptions, most rankings are commercial operations. See more in the document CIQG Policy Brief #4 - Rankings and Quality Assurance: Do Rankings Measure Quality? (February 2015).