Ranking Systems Resources by Topic

The categories listed below highlight key issues related to national and international ranking systems. The descriptions provide a brief overview of the issue as it relates to rankings and link to a list of annotated resources related to the topic. These topics include: access and equity; accountability, accreditation, and quality assessment; alternative approaches and suggested reforms; critiques; developing countries; impact on institutional decision making; impact on student decision making; methodology; policy; and, world class universities.

Access and Equity

As rankings have gained prominence and their impact on institutional decision-making has increased, concerns have been raised that as institutions aspire to rise in the rankings, they are compromising access and equity. Much of the research has focused on admissions processes in the United States; some argue that by emphasizing test scores and other factors considered by the rankings, institutions are putting minority and other students at a disadvantage in the admissions process. Internationally, questions have been raised as to whether higher education resources should be devoted to developing a few elite institutions that will be competitive in international rankings, or broadening access to reach a greater percentage of the population. The resources in this section address these and other issues surrounding the relationship among rankings, access and equity.

Accountability, Accreditation, and Quality Assessment

In recent years, there has been a worldwide movement towards greater accountability in higher education, in terms of quality, financing, student outcomes, and a variety of other areas. A number of countries have implemented accreditation and/or other quality assessment measures, and in some cases, rankings play a significant role in these efforts. In some of these systems, an institution’s funding may be tied to its rank. The resources in this section explore the sometimes complex relationship among rankings, accountability, accreditation, and quality assessment.

Alternative Approaches and Suggested Reforms

Despite the criticism and controversy surrounding current ranking systems, the higher education community has by and large accepted that rankings are here to stay, and will continue to impact policy and decision-making by institutions, students, and other stakeholders in the academic enterprise. Many researchers have turned their attention to improving and reforming current ranking systems, as well as developing alternative approaches. The resources in this section focus on these efforts, and highlight suggested best practices for methodology and the use of rankings data in planning and decision-making.

Critiques

Criticism of rankings is an extremely popular topic in both the press and the research literature. Critiques focus on methodology, impact on institutional and student decision-making, access and equity, and an array of other areas. Decisions by individual institutions to boycott commercial rankings have also received significant attention. The resources in this section provide an overview of the controversy surrounding rankings, and the major areas of concern about their methodology, use, and impact.

Developing Countries

Rankings pose particular issues for countries and institutions in the developing world. In terms of international rankings, which are based largely on research capability, institutions in the developing world rarely appear. While on one hand this absence may seem problematic, on the other hand there are questions as to whether research should be a focus of higher education in developing countries, and whether institutions should aspire to gaining a place in international rankings. National rankings systems, however, may play a key role in higher education quality assurance—a critical concern in many developing countries—if they are used effectively. The resources in this section provide an overview of these and other key questions and challenges surrounding ranking in the context of the developing world.

Impact on Institutional Decision Making

Rankings appear to be having important impacts on decision-making at the institutional level. Much of this impact centers around admissions policy and practice—in an effort to improve their rankings, institutions may adjust their admissions criteria, weigh certain factors more heavily than others, and adopt policies such as early admissions. Beyond admissions, some institutions are responding to rankings in other areas, such as strategic planning and personnel decisions. Much of the existing research in this area is U.S.-focused; however as the resources in this section reflect, it is now gaining more attention internationally as well.

Impact on Student Decision Making

According to many of their creators and publishers, a primary purpose of rankings is to help students select a higher education institution to attend. The role that rankings play in student decision-making, and the weight students (and their parents) accord to an institution’s ranking, has been the subject of many studies. In addition, researchers debate the extent to which students should use rankings to select a college, and whether they are considering rankings to the exclusion of other important factors, such as institutional culture and other characteristics not measured by the rankings. The resources in this section address these and other issues related to student decision-making.

Methodology

Significant attention has been paid in the research literature to rankings methodology. In response to criticism, the creators and publishers of rankings often go to great lengths to publicize (and defend) their methodologies, and outside researchers perform various analyses and comparisons of the factors used in different systems. The resources in this section address the methodologies used in many international and national rankings, from a number of points of view and through different analytical lenses.

Policy

Among the numerous stakeholders in higher education that have responded to rankings are national governments. Rankings have had an impact on higher education policy in a number of areas, most notably financing, quality assessment, and efforts to create “world class” universities. The resources in this section explore these impacts, and discuss how and to what extent it is appropriate for governments to respond to rankings and base policy decisions around them.

World Class Universities

In recent years, the concept of the “world class” university has emerged in higher education policy and practice worldwide. Many individual institutions have set a goal of becoming world class, and in a number of countries governments have introduced funding-related initiatives to develop an elite sector of institutions that are globally competitive. Despite its ubiquitous use, however, the definition of the term “world class” is unclear, and questions remain about whether policy-wise it is better to develop world class institutions or world class higher education systems. The resources in this section address these issues, and also discuss their relationship to rankings and classification schemes.