Real university rankings must reflect the teaching and learning processes

By Brendan O’Malley – Managing Editor. In Commentary, Waldemar Siwinski and Richard Holmes say the IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence’s efforts to establish what is a real university ranking show the urgent need for solid databases covering the teaching mission of universities. Mark Ashwill highlights new data showing that the enrolment of Vietnamese students in Canada has shot up in the past three years, with Canada benefiting from comparatively low costs and a more progressive, peaceful image than the United States. And Nan Yeld says two new projects in Sub-Saharan Africa are showing how data on higher education could be collected more cheaply and reliably and how staff capacity to use it can be enhanced – to help African universities raise quality.
   In a review, Catherine Gomes writes that the book Transnational Education Crossing ‘Asia’ and ‘the West’ by Phan Le-Ha shows that the relationship between East and West is more interdependent than in the past, but being able to provide a complete English-language learning environment is key.
   In our World Blog this week, Hans de Wit says optimism about internationalisation of higher education is justified, especially regarding the heightened interest in ‘internationalisation at home’ in the developing world, but it would be naïve to ignore the dark clouds hovering above.
   In a Special Report on the Studyportals Academy 2018 on ‘Embracing Change’, Nic Mitchell reports on a warning from Michelangelo Balicco that universities in some European countries are in danger of ‘cannibalising’ their own courses in the rush to introduce programmes taught in English. Mitchell also reports on a panel of study-abroad students agreeing that above all they wanted more responsive and better informed university staff.
   In Features, Wagdy Sawahel reports that draft legislation to regulate the performance of foreign university branch campuses in Egypt was recently approved, amid concerns that the opening of foreign universities will exacerbate inequality. And Emma Sabzalieva reports on the revelation that more than 25 doctoral dissertations from Tajikistan were found to contain significant elements of plagiarism, including that of the first deputy prime minister and a professor who is the minister of education’s son. More...