Public Policy Commons^™

World-Class Universities Or World-Class Systems? Rankings And Higher Education Policy Choices, Ellen Hazelkorn

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Is it always a good thing when a university rises up the rankings and breaks into the top 100? Do rankings raise standards by encouraging competition or do they undermine the broader mission to provide education? Should rankings be used to help decide educational policy and the allocation of scare financial resources? Should policy aim to develop world-class universities or to make the system world-class?

University rankings have dominated headlines and the attention of political and university leaders wherever or whenever they are published or mentioned. Politicians regularly refer to them as a measure of their nation’s economic strengths and …

The Imperative For Achieving Diversity, Ellen Hazelkorn

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Diversity is seen as a basic norm of higher education policy because it best meets educational and labour market. This presentation examines the concept of diversity as it applies to institutional mission and differentiation, and to research. It argues that in response to rankings and the global financial crisis, policymakers are tending to make a simple correlation between rankings, elite higher education and global competitiveness. There is increasing emphasis on selective excellence and focusing on the 'economic value of research outputs'. However, pursuit of ‘world class’ is skewing policy and institutional priorities.

What Have We Learned About And From Rankings?, Ellen Hazelkorn

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The presentation discusses the pros and cons of higher education rankings, and examines the impact and influence that rankings are having.