Archive for QS World University Rankings

Steps to Improve

Posted in Education, Maynooth with tags , , , , , on October 18, 2024 by telescoper

Along with all academic staff at Maynooth University I received an email this afternoon from the Vice-President for Research and Innovation, which contained the following request:

Well, I certainly won’t be providing any such lists at any time for this or any similar purpose, let alone by next Wednesday! I will be boycotting the QS World University Rankings and I urge any of my “peers” who are contacted about it to do likewise.

I assume that request this is a panicky reaction to the fact that Maynooth is so low in the current current QS league tables and falling in most others. This decline is a direct result of policies implemented by the Management Team at Maynooth, pushing up a student-staff ratio that is already the highest in Ireland, and starving core activities of resources while squandering millions on management salaries and perks – latest example of which is  €500,000 on a luxury taxi service for “priority staff members”; you can guess who that means. ..

I would prefer that the people in charge of Maynooth University made some attempt to improve teaching and research – you know, the things that a university is suppose to do – rather than try to game these ridiculous league tables. Such an approach, however, seems to be out of the question. Maynooth’s race to the bottom is bound to continue unless and until attitudes change at the top.

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Rankings Junk

Posted in Education with tags , , , , on January 31, 2024 by telescoper

A few weeks ago I did a post in response to the fact that Professor Philip Moriarty of Nottingham University – a former colleague of mine – had written a blog post in protest at his institution’s most recent and most blatant attempts to game the wretched world university rankings.

Open Letter: We reject the absurd QS/THE World University Rankings

One of the targets of his ire were the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) rankings. Ironically, I was looking in my spam folder yesterday and what did I find but an invitation to participate in the QS rankings, correctly identified as junk:

Clearly my email filters know what they’re doing!

Anyway, this gives me an excuse to boost Phil’s post again. The open letter contained therein is aimed at persuading not only Nottingham but other universities both in the UK and elsewhere to follow the example of Utrecht and abandon these absurd and meaningless rankings. To sign the open letter please follow this link and to see a list of signatories see here.

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Reject the Rankings!

Posted in Education with tags , , , on January 5, 2024 by telescoper

Professor Philip Moriarty of Nottingham University – a former colleague of mine – has written a blog post in protest at his institution’s most recent and most blatant attempts to game the wretched World University Rankings system. I encourage you to read it in its entirety.

Open Letter: We reject the absurd QS/THE World University Rankings

The post will touch a nerve with many colleagues around the world who will want to sign – as I have done – the open letter contained therein which is aimed at persuading not only Nottingham but other universities both in the UK and elsewhere to follow the example of Utrecht and abandon these absurd and meaningless rankings.

To sign the open letter please follow this link and to see a list of signatories see here.

Please sign – and spread the link to – this open letter as widely as possible. I’m sure there are many more academics out there who would be more than happy to sign!

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Why Universities should ignore League Tables

Posted in Bad Statistics, Education with tags , , , , , on January 12, 2017 by telescoper

Very busy day today but I couldn’t resist a quick post to draw attention to a new report by an independent think tank called the Higher Education Policy Institute  (PDF available here; high-level summary there). It says a lot of things that I’ve discussed on this blog already and I agree strongly with most of the conclusions. The report is focused on the international league tables, but much of what it says (in terms of methodological criticism) also applies to the national tables. Unfortunately, I doubt if this will make much difference to the behaviour of the bean-counters who have now taken control of higher education, for whom strategies intended to ‘game’ position in these, largely bogus, tables seem to be the main focus of their policy rather than the pursuit of teaching and scholarship, which is what should universities actually be for.

Here is the introduction to high-level summary:

Rankings of global universities, such as the THE World University Rankings, the QS World University Rankings and the Academic Ranking of World Universities claim to identify the ‘best’ universities in the world and then list them in rank order. They are enormously influential, as universities and even governments alter their policies to improve their position.

The new research shows the league tables are based almost exclusively on research-related criteria and the data they use are unreliable and sometimes worse. As a result, it is unwise and undesirable to give the league tables so much weight.

Later on we find some recommendations:

The report considers the inputs for the various international league tables and discusses their overall weaknesses before considering some improvements that could be made. These include:

  • ranking bodies should audit and validate data provided by universities;
  • league table criteria should move beyond research-related measures;
  • surveys of reputation should be dropped, given their methodological flaws;
  • league table results should be published in more complex ways than simple numerical rankings; and
  • universities and governments should not exaggerate the importance of rankings when determining priorities.

No doubt the purveyors of these ranking – I’ll refrain from calling them “rankers” – will mount a spirited defence of their business, but I agree with the view expressed in this report that as they stand these league tables are at best meaningless and at worst damaging.

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