[LINK] Aussie Higher Ed

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Glen writes,

> Please don't use a league table to select a university .. They're just
> counts of research citations ..

http://www.iu.qs.com/university-rankings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QS_World_University_Rankings


"The Methodology of the QS Major Rankings .."

1 Academic peer review (40%)  (no voting for own institution)
2 Faculty student ratio (20%)
3 Citations per faculty (20%)
4 Recruiter review (10%)
5 International orientation (10%)

(Also, enrollment fees are listed, but not included in QS rankings)

"The QS World University Rankings is regarded as one of the three most 
influential and widely observed international university rankings, along 
with the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the Academic 
Ranking of World Universities .."

Glen, I agree that one should not base one's future entirely on any such 
ratings. That would be crazy. And, academic ratings are always difficult, 
witness the angst caused by the national school 'ratings' in recent years.

However, as a high school teacher for 34 years (with 3 degrees and 4 post 
grad diplomas) I can personally attest to serious improvement, at the local
level, in individual school and teacher performance as a *direct* result of 
the government website "my school" ratings. After 34 years I know what I'm 
talking about. For one example, at a high school less then 2 klm from here, 
one faculty has most needfully raised their game quite extraordinarily as a 
direct result of the ratings. Now, whole year-levels of kids in this town 
are reading quite fluently, a complete turn-around. This is a life-changer.

So, my point is, the major point of such ratings may be the effect it has 
on respective institutes themselves, rather than as guides for enrollment?

Cheers,
Stephen

 


Message sent using MelbPC WebMail Server