International University Rankings
and the Race for World-Class Status
Jürgen Enders
Steinhardt Institute for Higher Education Policy
New York University, February 3, 2011
Overview
Rankings and the creation of social order
Setting the standards: What rankings measure
Political and institutional responses
The costs involved
A forward look
Creating social order
•Defining a field
Belonging and distinction, rules and criteria
•Constituting an arena for boundary work
Co-construction of authority in a multi-level,
•
multi-actor game
•Constructing a quasi-market
Reputation, money, and
self-fulfilling prophecies
What rankings measure . . .
. . . What some of their biases are
• measurable results
• beauty contest
• insignificant differences
• research
• certain type of research output
•
• science, life science and related
• English language
• defined by disciplinary epistemic elite
• universities as a whole
• older, larger comprehensive universities
Political responses
• Australian funding and evaluation reforms
• China’s 211 Project
• Finish mergers
•
• Germany’s excellence initiative
Political responses
“[…] While it has been suggested that “worldclass universities” be built in Finland […] it has
been overlooked that, strictly speaking, the only
world-class university in Finland is the University
of Helsinki”
•
(Rector Niiniluoto, on the occasion of The University of
Helsinki’s 367th Anniversary, March 26, 2007)
Organizational responses
NYU on Wikipedia
NYU is ranked 22nd among the top universities in the world
by Global University Ranking and as high as 29th in recent
years by the Academic Ranking of World Universities
NYU's individual schools are regularly ranked within the top
10 worldwide. NYU's philosophy department is ranked #1
among 50 philosophy departments in the English-speaking
world. NYU is also ranked #1 in Italian, finance,
mathematics, and theater
The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences is ranked #1
in applied mathematics in the U.S. NYU's Stern School of
Business undergraduate program is ranked #5 by U.S. News
and #12 by Business Week.
According to data compiled by Forbes Magazine in 2008,
NYU ranks 7th among universities that have produced the
largest number of living billionaires
Costs involved
• Financial
waste
• Imitation of the best and standardization
• Subordination of other missions
• Neglect of wider purposes of higher education
A forward look
• Can
we turn back from rankings?
• What if rankings are here to stay?
CHEPS-led network based in Europe wins tender to develop
alternative global ranking
field-based, multi-dimensional, adoptive criteria,
grouping approach, research & teaching & knowledge translation