Despite being the focus of sustained critique university rankings have proven a resilient feature of academic life. Considering the recent moves by U.S. institutions to remove themselves from rankings, Julian Hamann and Leopold Ringel explore this rela…
Category: Rankings
Rankings affect the financial sustainability of English universities, just not for the elite
University rankings are often presumed to be value neutral, creating equal opportunities for the institutions they order to compete around fixed indicators of quality. However, highlighting new collaborative research, Roxana Baltaru shows how universit…
The Home Office plan for ‘high potential visas’ is no master card
As the UK Home Office unveils plans to attract the “brightest and best” individuals to the UK, Johnny Rich outlines how using university league tables as a proxy measure to achieve this goal is unlikely to be successful. The UK Government has announced…
Despite the focus on Russell Group institutions as drivers of social mobility, it is actually universities outside this group that are contributing most strongly to social mobility
Carl Cullinane discusses how individual universities are contributing to social mobility, and finds that gaps in access are hugely variable depending on university selectivity. The most selective universities admitted comparatively low numbers from les…
The global rise in academic authors reporting multiple institutional affiliations reflects the unanticipated influence of research assessment on academia.
Academics reporting to be simultaneously affiliated with multiple organisations is a growing global phenomenon with significant implications for the usefulness and accuracy of research evaluations. Reporting on findings from a new study, Hanna Hottenro…
The global rise in academic authors reporting multiple institutional affiliations reflects the unanticipated influence of research assessment on academia.
Academics reporting to be simultaneously affiliated with multiple organisations is a growing global phenomenon with significant implications for the usefulness and accuracy of research evaluations. Reporting on findings from a new study, Hanna Hottenro…
The global rise in academic authors reporting multiple institutional affiliations reflects the unanticipated influence of research assessment on academia.
Academics reporting to be simultaneously affiliated with multiple organisations is a growing global phenomenon with significant implications for the usefulness and accuracy of research evaluations. Reporting on findings from a new study, Hanna Hottenro…
The Absurdity of University Rankings
University rankings are imbued with great significance by university staff and leadership teams and the outcomes of their ranking systems can have significant material consequences. Drawing on a curious example from their own institution, Jelena Branko…
What’s in a name? How false author affiliations are damaging academic research
When reading a research paper, can you be certain that the institution the author claims to be affiliated with is actually the institution that was responsible for supporting the research? In this post Vivienne C. Bachelet presents findings from a recent study suggesting that a significant proportion of author affiliations are unverifiable. Highlighting how a lack of editorial guidance in […]
Book Review: The Good University: What Universities Actually Do and Why It’s Time for Radical Change by Raewyn Connell
In The Good University: What Universities Actually Do and Why It’s Time for Radical Change, Raewyn Connell provides a powerful and expansive critique of the current state of higher education at a variety of different geographical scales. While this lucid and important book makes clear that the global state of higher education is at a crossroads, its optimism should make it a deserved […]