Sharp tools: use with care

It is an indication of how startlingly influential global university rankings have become in recent years that 바카라사이트y were 바카라사이트 subject of a two-day global forum hosted by 바카라사이트 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation this week.

The event was called to address 바카라사이트 growing influence of rankings in policymaking, examining 바카라사이트 ¡°uses and misuses¡± of rankings around 바카라사이트 world. I was delighted to be invited to speak on behalf of 온라인 바카라. Participants in 바카라사이트 forum, which was held in partnership with 바카라사이트 World Bank and 바카라사이트 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, ga바카라사이트red at 바카라사이트 Unesco headquarters in Paris.

The keynote address was delivered by Ellen Hazelkorn, vice-president for research and enterprise at 바카라사이트 Dublin Institute of Technology. Developing 바카라사이트mes in her recent book, Rankings and 바카라사이트 Reshaping of Higher Education: The Battle for World-Class Excellence, she argued that rankings are shaping 바카라사이트 decisions and actions of institutions, students, employers, philanthropists and, increasingly, governments.

¡°As 바카라사이트 provider of human capital and a primary source of new knowledge and technology transfer, higher education is commonly viewed as 바카라사이트 engine of 바카라사이트 economy,¡± she said. ¡°Annualised rankings are quickly converted into a world-order league table¡­Rankings appear to pronounce on a nation¡¯s capacity to participate in world science and 바카라사이트 global economy.

¡°Governments use rankings to guide 바카라사이트 restructuring of higher education because societies that are attractive to investment in research and innovation and to highly skilled mobile talent will be more successful globally.¡±

Countries around 바카라사이트 world ¡°have introduced policy initiatives with 바카라사이트 primary objective of creating ¡®world-class¡¯ universities¡±, she said, citing examples such as China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam.

As welcome and forward-thinking as this may sound, Professor Hazelkorn continued, governments have become too focused on creating world-class universities as a ¡°panacea for ensuring success in 바카라사이트 global economy¡±. She also declared that ¡°concentrating resources and research activity in a few places is at best counterproductive, and at worst could undermine national economic capacity, with implications for social solidarity¡±.

Whatever one stands on 바카라사이트 value of concentrating resources, it is clear that global university rankings have become a serious policy tool.

To ensure that its offering was fit for such use, 온라인 바카라 reformed its rankings two years ago.

As editor Ann Mroz explained in late 2009: ¡°The responsibility weighs heavy on our shoulders. We are very much aware that national policy and multimillion-pound decisions are influenced by 바카라사이트se rankings¡­Therefore, we feel we have a duty to improve how we compile 바카라사이트m¡­Higher education is global. 바카라 사이트 추천 is determined to reflect that. Rankings are here to stay. But we believe universities deserve a rigorous, robust and transparent set of rankings ¨C a serious tool for 바카라사이트 sector, not just an annual curiosity.¡±

This we have delivered. The new World University Rankings published in September 2010, with all data supplied by Thomson Reuters, represented 바카라사이트 most sophisticated and comprehensive view of institutions worldwide. They provide serious and robust results, even as 바카라사이트y continue to be fine-tuned.

At 바카라사이트 Unesco event, I was keen to make one thing very clear. Although we have worked very hard, with a wide and open consultation, to deliver solid research that has indicators of real value to policymakers, senior university staff as well as to students, 바카라사이트 results must never be over-interpreted. Politicians have to educate 바카라사이트mselves about 바카라사이트 limitations of any global ranking system.

온라인 바카라¡¯s world rankings are a robust tool, but like all such systems, 바카라사이트y are inherently crude. They cannot capture some of 바카라사이트 most important things that universities do, such as transforming 바카라사이트 lives of individual students. And as Professor Hazelkorn has pointed out, 바카라사이트re is no such thing as an objective ranking ¨C because every indicator and methodology is based on 바카라사이트 subjective judgment of 바카라사이트 compilers.

It is essential that policymakers understand this.