Professor from top university criticises rankings, warns about consequences
A University College London professor warns that one of the dangers of global rankings is that many universities have become civically disengaged. Her recently published study shows that global university rankings are playing an increasing role in shaping higher education’s purpose.
University rankings are now widely perceived and used as the international measure of quality, despite ongoing criticism around the appropriateness or otherwise of the methodology, Professor Ellen Hazelkorn argues in the paper published by the Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE) at the UCL Institute of Education (IOE). According to a press release, Hazelkorn conducted two surveys in 2006 and 2014 and both show that rankings are used by universities to make decisions and shape their priorities.
As being in the ‘Top 100’ is now a national or institutional strategy, Professor Ellen Hazelkorn highlights the fact that in recent years there has been growing pressure on universities to justify the public interests they serve. As a result, quality has become a contested concept, transformed from being institutionally-led to driven and regulated by the state.
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“Globalisation and the massification of higher education have also led to a growing demand for internationally comparative data. University priorities are being set by governments through national strategies or performance agreements. Whereas historically the state provided for the needs of universities, today the university provides for the needs of the state,” the paper notes.
Professor Ellen Hazelkorn also argues that the popularity of rankings also reflects higher education’s central position in geopolitical relations. As nations compete based on their knowledge and innovation systems, higher education has become an important part of the global economic architecture. Universities face competing demands from local, national and global actors.
Last but not least, she says that by measuring the achievements of individual universities rather than the system or society collectively, global rankings promote world-class universities rather than world-class systems. Professor Hazelkorn concludes that universities must urgently rethink and reshape relations with their public and the state, and work towards bridging the gap between local, national and global.
The paper “Public good’ and the role of universities in society” was published on 2 May by Professor Ellen Hazelkorn and Andrew Gibson from Dublin Institute of Technology.
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