To Rank or Not to Rank?
That is the question!
Thanks to those who responded to our little survey last month on The Ranking Game.
Of the 51 people who responded, 78% said that their institution does worry about the ranking exercises, and 86% said their organisations do make a conscious effort to improve performance. Interestingly, only 47% said that they had a dedicated team involved. One person commented that there were several people involved who all had other responsibilities, so they were not sure it could actually be called a ’team’, and another commented that it was a collaboration across the areas of finance, HR, research and student reporting.
The most ’watched’ exercise was THE World University Ranking (96%) followed closely by the QS World University Ranking (88%), with 67% following the ARWU out of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The US News and World Report Best Global Universities Ranking seems to be the most popular ’next’ exercise, with 71% following the results there. You might be interested to know that US News has been doing their rankings in the US since 1983, but that they only started the Global Universities Ranking in 2014. They do a great deal of ranking exercises at US News, including an Overall Best Countries Ranking that scores Australia 7th and New Zealand 13th in the world.
Several survey respondents made comments, including one person who noted that although the improvement in ranking performance was a strategic aim, that it was secondary to the strategic aims of improving teaching quality and research performance. Another person noted that senior staff seemed to be more concerned with rankings than with ‘on-the-ground excellence’, while another observed that the reputation measures were the hardest to predict and manage for a regional university.
I also learned about a new ranking called the Taiwanese NTU ranking, which the respondent said was an excellent measure for viewing the long- and short-term research performance of a university.
And for those of you who need a good chuckle or at least a broad smile, you should check out these rankings that one person shared.
Didn’t take our 30-second rankings poll? Here’s your chance!
So, happy ranking to you all!
On another note, I will be attending the AAIR SIG Forum in Canberra from 26 to 27 July, so I hope to see many of you there.
QUICK! Register for the SIG Forum
Kathie Rabel
AAIR President
