How International University Rankings are Shaking Up Higher Ed

Higher education leaders have often bemoaned university ranking systems as unfairly highlighting institutions that have empirically had a great deal of resources and large endowments, while positioning colleges that are working to enroll low-income, underserved students as being behind the pack. That was a major complaint behind the Obama-era College Scorecardinitiative, for which a number of community college leaders said devalued their institutions and made them look less appealing to potential enrollees' parents. 

They argued this is problematic because the ranking system, even though it may be created with the best intention, inevitably impacts funding and means the students who need the most support and greatest resources get the least, as they typically don't enroll in the top-tier institutions. When this is happening on the global scale, institutions with the highest resources overall will also gain greater attention in the enrollment game. 

For instance, Rutgers University chancellor Debasish Dutta said last year that his No. 1 challenge as being the institution's new leader was making sure Rutgers could reflect itself accurately in national college rankings, because he was concerned that the New Jersey flagship — which does have students from less privileged backgrounds — was being poorly represented. 

While institution ranking systems are here to stay, Martin Kurzweil, director of the Educational Transformation Program at Ithaka S+R explained during the Council for Higher Education Accreditation conference earlier this year, that perhaps leaders ought to encourage a more equitable benchmark system for accountability by creating peer benchmarking standards — while maintaining benefits of global ranking systems such as the promotion of international collaboration in research and sharing of best practices abroad and at home.

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