Saturday, August 14, 2010

An Assessment of the Relevance of the World University Rankings


Based on a paper written by Francis de la Cruz in September 2008 for a PhD course on “Internationalization of Education.”

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INTRODUCTION. De La Salle University’s Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Lasallian Mission and External Relations (OVCLMER) was created for many important reasons. One of them is to ensure the internationalization of education in DLSU, which is precisely the reason for the subsidiary Office of International Academic Services. Another important reason is to ensure the adequate marketing of the university, both in the local and in the international scene, thus the subsidiary Marketing Communication Office. Pertinently, one of the many recent causes or catalysts that lead to the creation of the OVCLMER is the emergence of international university accreditation and ranking systems.

Since internationalization and marketing are inter-related strategic thrusts, this paper will attempt to answer the following questions:

• Why are World University Rankings seemingly important?

• If one of the primary reasons is that it may affect the quantity and quality of students that enroll in a particular university, then who are these potential students? And who makes the decisions for them as regards where they will enroll?

• Ultimately, do the decision-makers refer to World University Rankings and other similar database? What do they refer to? Or do they refer to anything at all?

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APPROACH AND INITIAL ANALYSIS. When I first started writing this paper it was somewhat difficult to proceed because there seemed to be only two natural but very dauntingly difficult approaches to follow.

1. Critique the World University Rankings and their methodology.

2. Being the very loyal Lasallian that I am – Make a comparative analysis of DLSU with its rival schools and state the reasons why DLSU is at the very least at par.

It was quite tempting to attack the problem either way. Indeed, quite a few Philippine academicians have already done so. Ultimately, however, after having read a great deal of material on the issue, I found it all to be ironic in three ways.

1. Bastions of scientific research (i.e., the universities) are being affected by very unscientific ranking systems. This is true as evidenced by the many arguments and counter-arguments found in extant literature and written by academicians who are connected with the ranked universities and are thus so emotionally involved.

2. Academicians are so inclined to analyze that they proceed to analyze even when there is no more need to do so, thereby losing sight of the big picture. Take for instance the fact that DLSU dropped by about a hundred notches in a certain World University Ranking in just one year (from 2006 to 2007) when there is absolutely nothing that has taken place to drastically diminish the quality of education offered in DLSU. Never mind “ridiculous,” it is simply “impossible,” and that is the very plain and simple truth. Indeed, that alone should have stripped the said World University Ranking of all its credibility, rendering it unworthy of any further attention. But that is not the case. Perhaps it is because, as academicians, when we see so much data we just have to analyze it because we are challenged to do so. After all, that is what we are trained to do.

3. A closer look at the literature will reveal that hardly any of the top schools participate in the discussions. Why should they? Rankings or not they are as good as they are, they are the best. They do not need these rankings to lend them credibility, in fact it is the other way around. Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge, etc., do not need university rankings to tell them they are among the very best. However, World University Rankings must include these schools in their Top 20 list if they are to be credible. Indeed, the top schools are confident, and they don’t care. It is the schools with lower ranks that make all the fuss and argue.

Apart from the ironies there are other reasons to question the world ranking systems. To put it succinctly, are the organizations behind these rankings in the business of research or are they in the business of business? In 2007 Indira Samarasekera, president of the University of Alberta, actually stated that “It’s time to question these third-party rankings that are actually marketing driven.” Similarly, the Graduate School of Education of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University has implied in its Disclaimer (2008) that some ranking systems are indeed a matter of commerce.

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PROCEDURES AND FINDINGS. Perhaps therefore we (that is, those of us in “the lower ranked universities”) are missing the point if we pre-occupy ourselves with the various university rankings. Perhaps we should assess the actual relevance of these so-called rankings to us, and in doing so we may choose to ask (as earlier cited) the following the questions:

• Why are World University Rankings seemingly important?

• If one of the primary reasons is that it may affect the quantity and quality of students that enroll in a particular university, then who are these potential students? And who makes the decisions for them as regards where they will enroll?

• Ultimately, do the decision-makers refer to World University Rankings and other similar database? What do they refer to? Or do they refer to anything at all?

In other words, who are the decision makers? And how does one influence their decisions?

Although it may be true that world university rankings can matter in other countries (Myers, 1999) where there are hundreds of well-funded first-rate universities that are in competition, it may not be as relevant in the Philippines where there are only a handful of bona-fide world-class universities, with each practically having its own distinct set of competencies in terms of academic course offerings, not to mention its own level of affordability (i.e., in terms of tuition fees). The world rankings may matter more to foreign students who are contemplating to study in the Philippines, but this foreign market is perhaps not yet a market that is sizeable enough to be the primary source of concern.

In light of the foregoing, I conducted an e-mail survey to determine

- how locally based potential university students decide what universities they ultimately attend,

- or if others decide for them,

- and what the bases for the decision are,

- and more specifically, whether they consider data such as World University Rankings.

The Survey was conducted through the Following Yahoogroups:

• Chief Executives - Graduate Management Education Network. With 181 Members, this yahoogroup includes in its membership some of my former graduate and undergraduate students from DLSU, UST, UA&P, and san Beda College. http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Chief_Executives/

• DLSU-ELMD-GSO - DLSU-ELMD Graduate Students Organization. With 171 Members, this yahoogroup is exclusively for DLSU-ELMD students and alumni only. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DLSU-ELMD-GSO/

• SBC-MBA-CFOs - SBC-MBA-Finance. With 92 Members, this yahoogroup includes my former MBA students from San Beda College. http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/SBC-MBA-CFOs/

The survey was not very exhaustive and detailed, but sufficed for the purpose of this paper. Consequently, the results were as follows:

Basic Finding – The survey result did not reflect any significant reliance by the respondents on World University Rankings. More pronounced is a reliance on “word of mouth” recommendations.

(Other somewhat contentious findings were omitted from this digest.)

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CONCLUSION. Simply put, if the preliminary results of the aforementioned survey are any indication of the true sentiments of the target student market of DLSU and its rival universities, then it may be safe to say that the rankings, particularly World University Rankings, might not be as relevant as many people have thought it to be.

As an aside, certainly the fact that DLSU was the first to be accorded the Level IV status by CHED should matter more. More thorough research and assured professional integrity was involved on the part of CHED when it granted DLSU the highest rating for any Philippine university. Moreover, to prove its consistency and non-reliance on mere chance, DLSU is also the first Philippine university to be admitted to and highly rated by the Asean University Network – Quality Assurance (AUN-QA) assessment program, which is also thorough and professional but at an international level. Thus, if any form of ranking or accreditation should be made known and focused on, it should be these.

At any rate, I hereby recommend to other researchers that they conduct a more rigid and full-blown version of the cursory survey which I conducted in line with this paper. Anyone interested to do so and who wishes to take a look at my survey may get in touch with me.

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REFERENCES

• Indira Samarasekera. (2007.) Rising Up Against Rankings. Retrieved from http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/04/02/samarasekera

• Linda Myers. (1999.) Study Shows College Rankings Do Matter But Questions Methodology. Retrieved from http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/99/12.2.99/rankings-matter.html

• College and University Rankings. (2008.) Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_and_university_rankings

• Several other references were omitted from this list.

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[Originally blogged September 22, 2008 on http://francisjr.blog.friendster.com/2008/09/research-digest-no1/ ]

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