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Bucharest Romania IREG/SNSPA presentation.pptx
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- 2. The birth ofglobal rankings • Prehistory: early rankings such as the 1908 Carnegie list • US News 1983, and other national rankings • Asiaweek 1999 and 2000 • Then Shanghai Rankings (ARWU) 2003 This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
- 3. Shanghai Rankings • Researchbased: awards, publications, citations • Public Western sources • A specific objective • Much criticised but objective, consistent, and transparent This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
- 4. After Shanghai • 2004two new rankings Webometrics and THES-QS • Six new rankings in 2010 THE WUR, QS WUR, Emerging, RUR, GreenMetric, URAP This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
- 5. Since 2004 • Globalrankings have proliferated and expanded • Perhaps receding -- 20 in 2019, 15 in IREG 2024 • Plus subject, business, age, sustainability, impact, visibility • Plus borderline cases and defunct rankings This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
- 6. What rankings measure •Three general themes: research, teaching-related, internet activity with another – social impact • Sources of data: bibliometric, institutional data, surveys • New indicators added since 2004 • More citation metrics, patents, books, conferences, social media, sustainability, impact, international collaboration, social media, international collaboration This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
- 7. The impact ofglobal rankings • Rankings have become very influential • Major element in marketing strategies • Everywhere -- railway stations, buses, campuses • Not profitable in themselves but part of a massive complex of data processing – many appear to be run at a loss or a shoestring budget • More universities ranked, but apart from uniRank and Webometrics only a minority of potential HEIs This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY
- 8. Scepticism • Reduce complexprocesses to a single number • Favour anglosphere • Favour hard sciences • Easily gameable • False hopes • But some have identified genuine trends This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed
- 9. What next for rankings? •Questions about assessment of teaching and learning • Questions about assessment of research quantity and quality • Should universities be assessed for social and political activity? • How should universities deal with online instruction and AI?
- 10. Decline of globalrankings • China is avoiding Top 500 supercomputer rankings, THE impact rankings, GreenMetric • Low score for QS sustainability metrics • Indian IITs boycotting THE • Western Rankings boycotting Russia • Korea boycotting QS • Boycotts of Russia and Israel
- 11. Future of rankings •Regional rankings – see Applied HE, Arab Ranking of Universities, Perspektywy • Third mission rankings appear to be ascendant • Revival of national rankings NIRF, Daily Mail, • Subject rankings • Or combinations of these This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY
- 12. Towards multipolarity • Researchhegemony appears to be passing from the West to China and possibly to India, Russia, Latin America, and the Middle East • Will Chinese or other non Western rankings emulate the market dominance of THE and QS? This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
- 13. AI • It islikely that AI will boost the circulation of data and data submission for rankings • Will contribute to an increase in research fraud and also fraudulent ranking data • But it is possible that AI eventually will improve the detection of fraud
- 14. To conclude • Thenumber of general global rankings may decline • But there may be more regional and national rankings • Shift from the Anglosphere to Asia and perhaps other regions • Technological change will present new and daunting challenges • Whatever happens things will be interesting