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Global University Rankings — Impacts and Unintended Side Effects
Author(s) -
Kehm Barbara M.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
european journal of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.577
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1465-3435
pISSN - 0141-8211
DOI - 10.1111/ejed.12064
Subject(s) - ranking (information retrieval) , unintended consequences , european commission , commission , value (mathematics) , sociology , higher education , political science , reputation , positive economics , regional science , economics , social science , law , international trade , statistics , computer science , european union , mathematics , machine learning
In this article, global and other university rankings are critically assessed with regard to their unintended side effects and their impacts on the European and national landscape of universities, as well as on individual institutions. An emphasis is put on the effects of ranking logics rather than on criticising their methodology. Nevertheless, it is briefly outlined what rankings measure and whom they serve. The second part takes a look at impacts of rankings on the European, national and institutional level. A third part casts rankings as a particular form of transnational policy coordination which enabled the European Commission to design its own policy script with regard to rankings. In the conclusions it is argued that ranking results have, in turn, become indicators or proxies for the economic competitiveness of nations, thus making the actual reality of universities and what they are about disappear. Thus, rankings constitute a de‐contextualised symbolic value which is truly postmodern and create a new material reality which is no longer related to its original.