Rankings exists in a Constant State of Flux

 

With all the brouhaha about U.P. sliding into second place as the country’s premier university upon the recent release of the THE world university rankings, I’ll add in my two cents worth.  

Firstly, ranking universities via submitted data by the universities is like judging a beauty pageant using only data of the individual contestants like height, weight, bra size, eye color, waistline measurement, etc.  For all you know, she might be walking with a limp, is cross-eyed and lacking a tooth.  Without actual site visits and interviewing the different stakeholders (parents, students, faculty, and staff) like local accreditors usually do, it’s like ranking the pageant contestants without seeing the candidates up front or interviewing them.  

Second, THE and ARWU puts more weight on research and citations of research outputs whereas QS puts more weight on student experience (e.g., diverse/international student body, student faculty ratio), teaching and good school reputation (based on reputation surveys).  

As meaningless as these rankings are, it is sad that most of the energies of the faculty members are being channeled more and more into research rather than developing and upgrading the curricular programs or simply providing the students with relevant and quality education.  

High rankings only bestow a fleeting sense of achievement in an elusive chase for international recognition.

Let us not spread out educators too thin.