In the world of higher education, university ranking is a powerful tool to promote visibility. It can enable students, faculty members, potential collaborators and more to discover institutions that might not have been on their radar otherwise. Rankings can also be a valuable resource to help students make informed decisions about their academic journey and find the best fit for them.
As the university ranking industry has evolved, some organizations have developed their own unique approaches to assessing and evaluating universities. These range from highly specialized and narrow approaches to broad, global, or regional coverage of universities. Some focus on national or international rankings, others on regional or world-wide listings.
A university ranking is a list of surveyed universities that are evaluated according to various criteria and then assigned a rank, usually on the basis of their overall academic reputation and research output. University rankings are often used by prospective students and their families to help decide which university they should attend or work with, especially when travel budgets or visa restrictions make campus visits impractical. They are also a valuable source of information for educators and researchers who are looking to collaborate with institutions that are making the greatest contributions in their fields.
However, not all rankings are created equal. In fact, many university ranking systems are subject to criticism for their lack of objectivity and use of proxies to measure quality. In her article, “Global Science, National Research and the Question of University Rankings,” Ellen Hazelkorn explains that, for example, bibliometric indicators are largely based on publications, which excludes undergraduate research and can overemphasize research by English-speaking schools. Additionally, rankings do not typically reward colleges for their efforts toward equity and other society-focused missions, such as those of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).