International Academics Rankings — Lessons for Universities of Technology
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Transcript of International Academics Rankings — Lessons for Universities of Technology
Lvov, 7 November 2014
International academics rankings- lessons for universities of technology
Waldemar Siwiński Perspektywy Education Fundation
IREG Observatory on Academic Rankings and Excellence
Lvov, 7 November 2014
Why rankings
Opening question
Can we imagine higher education without university rankings?
How can we best live with them, how do we organize the university’s activities to prevent rankings of having a destructive influence on the life of the university?
How can we make a use of the university rankings in a creative way to improve the functioning of a university, its departments and units?
How in the rankings, especially those international aspire to high positions, how to be succeed?
Lvov, 7 November 2014
Why rankings
Future of rankings
Despite their many shortcomings, biases and flaws rankings enjoy a high level of acceptance among
stakeholders and the wider public because of their simplicity and consumer-type information.
Thus, university rankings are not going to disappear; indead, the number of rankings is expected to increase
although they will became more specialised.prof. Andrejs Rauhvargers
from Report for European University Association
Rankings and league tables are here to stay and increasingly impact upon institutional behaviour.
Prof. Helena Nazaré President of the European University Association
Lvov, 7 November 2014
Why rankings
What has happend in the last 20 years
Parallel and overlapping processes:
massification of higher education and its internationalization.
It all happens in the era of globalization, the growth of the knowledge based economy and competition for best talent.
There are more and more universities, academic staff and students in the world but in reality, it’s only the best that count. The countries that do not understand that rule will lose in competition with their faster, smarter and more determined counterparts.
Lvov, 7 November 2014
Why rankings
Students of the World 2013
4,5 mln internationalstudents
177 mln students totalincl. 2,6% international students
Lvov, 7 November 2014
Developing of rankings
Ranking landscape1983. US News & World Report (USA)
1991. Macleans (Canada)
1992. The Times (UK)
1997. CHE Ranking (Germany)
2000. Perspektywy Ranking (Poland)
2003. Shanghai Ranking (China)
2004. Webometrics (Spain)
2004. QS-THES Ranking (UK)
2007. Leiden Ranking (The Netherlands)
2009. URAP Ranking (Turkey)
2014. U-Multirank (EU)2015. ???
National Regional
GlobalBy Subject
Specialized…
Lvov, 7 November 2014
Limitation of rankings
Methodological limitations
There can be no such thing as an “objective ranking”.
Every ranking, independent of how and for whom it was made, always contains two subjective elements:
CRITERIA and their PERCENTAGE WEIGHT.
All other factors can be objective and be standardized – methodology of measuring, data verification, mode of presentation – but the choice of criteria and assignment of weight to them will always remain subjective.
A big problem is also the lack of reliable and comparable data on higher education.
Lvov, 7 November 2014
Limitation of rankings
Wise man motto
Albert Einstein:
– Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
Lvov, 7 November 2014
Quality in the spotlight
IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence
Association of ranking organizations, universities and other units. Its goal is the improvement of the quality of international and national ranking of higher education institutions.
And also:
establishing the permanent system of discussion (opened to international community) and evaluation of different rankings,
stimulating the conferences and exchange of ‘good practice’ within the given ranking area of interest.
Lvov, 7 November 2014
Quality in the spotlight
Berlin Principles on Ranking
Be clear about purpose and target groups
Provide clarity about sources
Specify contexts: linguistic, cultural, economic, and historical
Be transparent regarding methodology
Pay due attention to ethical standards and good practice
Use audited and verifiable data
Apply measures of quality assurance
Lvov, 7 November 2014
Quality in the spotlight
IREG Ranking Audit
The purpose of the IREG Ranking Audit, conducted by independent academic teams, is:
to verify if a ranking under review is done professionally, observes good practices and provides students, their parents and employers with the information allowing them to compare and assess programs offered by higher education institutions.
Lvov, 7 November 2014
National rankings
Universities of technology in Poland and Ukraine are on high places in the national rankings of their countries.
Ukraine. According to the “Top-200” ranking in the first 10 best universities there are four technical universities, and 9 are in the top 20.
Poland. In the top 10 best universities in the Perspektywy University Ranking 2014, there are four technical universities, and five in the “top 20”.
Leaders in their country
Lvov, 7 November 2014
International rankings
Question. What is the position of technical universities of Poland and Ukraine in international rankings?
Answer: None of the of the Polish or Ukrainian make it in to the “magic 500” best schools in the world. According to the unofficial information obtained from the authors of international rankings some of them occasionally appear in places between 500 and 1000. But it will be very difficult for them to advance to the top “500”.
Outside „magic 500”
Lvov, 7 November 2014
Result of Scopus analysis
Cooperation pays off
All known cases of successful cooperation of scientists from Poland and Ukraine demonstrate that the citation of joint publications, by average, is twice of the publication by authors of only one university.
Working together on joint publications we can automatically improve position of our universities in the international rankings as citations is the most weighted criterion in all important rankings.
.
Lvov, 7 November 2014
Proposal
Towards the new ranking?
If we want to present universities of Ukraine, Poland and other countries of the Continental Europe in a proper context, it is worth considering creation of a European University Ranking in the Field of Technology.
It will not be a very complicated task but one that may prove to be advantageous also in the context of competing for grants in the Horizon 2020 program.
Lvov, 7 November 2014
Final remarks
General conclusions
University rankings contribute to the proper functioning of the higher education systems in various countries. As an element of an independent evaluation, they are, along with accreditation and benchmarking, a basic tool assuring the high quality of teaching and research.
Rankings are perhaps imperfect, but very effective tool for comparing universities and quality assurance of higher education.
Rankings may irritate but they cannot be ignored. (Le Monde)
Lvov, 7 November 2014
Final remarks
Forum’s Conclusions
We should aim at increasing the number of joint publications of Polish and Ukrainian scientists as citation of such publications is twice as high as citation of works by authors of one university only.
We should consider creation of a European University Ranking in the field of technology as it will allow to show better the strong aspects of Polish and Ukrainian universities, and universities of other European countries as well.
Thank You!
Waldemar Siwiński Fundacja Edukacyjna Perspektywy
IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence
[email protected]@ireg-observatory.org