The Globalization of College and University Rankings

In the era of globalization, accountability, and benchmarking, university rankings have achieved a kind of iconic status. The major ones--the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU, or the "Shanghai rankings"), the QS (Quacquarelli Symonds Limited) World University Rankings, and the "Times Higher Education" World University Rankings (THE)--are newsworthy across the world. In this nation, the "US News & World Report"'s influential and widely criticized ranking of America's colleges and universities, now in its 17th year, creates media buzz every year--who is "up" and who is "down"? If rankings did not exist, someone would have to invent them. They are an inevitable result of higher education's worldwide massification, which produced a diversified and complex academic environment, as well as competition and commercialization within it. It is not surprising that rankings became prominent first in the United States, the country that developed mass higher education the earliest. In this article, the author talks about these rankings, who uses them and for what purposes. He also explores the problems with ranking systems, and the nature of the debate that currently swirls around each of them. (Contains 8 resources.)