Context
Several countries like China, Japan, and Russia have committed substantial resources to elevate the statuses of their universities to “world class”.
About
- Some universities worldwide have pulled out of being ranked, over concerns about the incentives the structures set up and their compatibility with the colleges’ personal aspirations.
What do ranking structures do?
- At present, the Times Higher Education (THE), the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), the Academic Ranking of World Universities and the U.S. News & World Report are the most famous rankings schemes worldwide.
- They maintain significant weight and have an effect in shaping instructional policies and priorities in the higher education sector in many countries.
- A rating system orders the better education institutes in a place (country, region, etc.) by their accomplishments on diverse fronts — such as teaching, research, reputation, industry-focused research, and collaborative efforts.
Are ranking systems ideal?
- Unidimensional: In 2021, Elizabeth Gadd, a research officer at Loughborough University in the U.K., published a critique in which she pronounced that universities’ quests for better rating mirrors the flawed pursuit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the sole measure of a country’s prosperity.
- According to Dr. Gadd, university scores, like GDP, distill complicated roles that universities play in society into a single, unidimensional rating.
- Over-represented: Experts have noticed that the very best ranked universities in various ranking systems are old, large, wealthy, research-intensive, science-focused, English-speaking, and in the Global North.
- Arbitrary measures: Studies have also proven that better scores in research excellence in ratings are inspired to an extraordinary degree through two factors: citations and reputation.
- For example Bielefeld University leaped from 250th to 166th in the 2020 THE ratings. The jump has been attributed to a single pupil’s work, who posted 10 papers, co-authored with loads of different researchers. These citations are not spurious however over-represented.
- Manipulation: Citations can dramatically alter an entire university’s overall performance in the rankings.
- For instance, in 2023, Science pronounced the case of Saveetha Dental College in Chennai rocketing up the rating ladder allegedly with the aid of manipulating citations.
- Favoritism: In 2016, Richard Holmes, an expert in ranking systems, wrote that THE’s regional ratings appeared to favour universities that hosted an vital THE summit.
- Conflicts of interest: Most entities that compile and post scores are private establishments, and there were times of these entities consulting with universities to assist the latter obtain better ranks of their own structures.
- Data safety: By taking part in rating sports, universities and institutes offer ranking groups unfastened reign over their data, compromising their data safety.
Conclusion
- As the UN University’s assertion on ‘Global University Rankings’ reads: “While ratings may additionally have incentivised a few improvement in the quality of some universities, there’s developing recognition that additionally they incentivise some of perverse and harmful behaviours and convey systemic long-term negative consequences.
Source: The Hindu
UPSC Mains Practice Question
Q.What is University Ranking? How can this ranking contribute to India’s Education system? (200 words)
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