Rankings Boycott in Germany

By Frances Mechan Schmidt. The Center for Higher Education Development (CHE) is responsible for what is arguably Germany's best-known university ranking system. Results are presented by means of a simple traffic-light method of classification: top-rated universities get green buttons, average ones yellow and low scorers blue. But the ratings paintbox has recently seen the addition of a new color: a lot of universities are seeing red.
It all started last September when 300 economics professors signed an open letter of protest against the separate ranking conducted by Handelsblatt, a sober business daily, which does an annual "best of" listing for academics in strict accordance with the number of publications candidates have to their credit.
Prolific publishers were deemed "high-flyers" in their fields and figured accordingly on the lists. The protesters included even academics who scored well in the ratings yet still felt the "Pop Idol" criteria of quantity, rather than quality, unworthy of serious academia.
But that was just the start. Emboldened by their economics colleagues, other university faculties began to protest. First, members of the German Sociological Association declared they would no longer be forwarding data for the CHE rankings. Then came the English faculties, followed by the Association of Historians and educationalists and, finally, the German Association of Chemists, comprising 30,000 members, who said they were tired of constant ratings and rankings and would also no longer participate. Read more...