Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Another university ranking – really?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

I can't resist posting this, even if only because "the countries that had the highest average scores were Canada, Ireland and Australia." The article is referring to "the Times Higher Education (THE) university impact rankings, released for the first time on 3 April" where "THE has tried to measure universities on what matters, rather than on what can be counted." And what does matter? "Rankings are aligned to 11 of the UN's 17 sustainable development goals.  These goals – no poverty, zero hunger, good health and wellbeing, quality education etc – matter to us as a nation." Now while I like this ranking system, it does underscore a point about rankings made previously in this newsletter - ranking systems are advocacy instruments, where publications define their own version of 'good', and then attempt to convince institutions to align with them in order to improve their ranking. This remains true, whether or not I like the measurement or the outcome.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Apr 19, 2024 10:16 p.m.

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