What Do Students Know about University Rankings?Testing Familiarity and Knowledge of Global and Domestic University League Tables in China

While academics and university administrators often criticize rankings,league tables have become important tools for student decision-making,especially in the Chinese sector.Yet,research has not fully explored how students in China have engaged with both global and local rankings,as most studies have focused on one setting or the other.Likewise,researchers have not tested students’knowledge of rankings,despite the intense focus on these actors by universities.Using a survey of over 900 students from Chinese universities,the author explored how knowledge of rankings varies in different student populations.Through multivariate analysis,it is found that students from elite institutions and those with educated parents were more attuned to university rankings in general.However,when testing students’knowledge of rankings,elite university students performed better in knowing their domestic ranking,but worse when guessing their global ranking,while associations to parental education disappeared.This study,the first of its kind in terms of testing student knowledge,illustrates that the impact from university rankings are mitigated by local and individual characteristics.

Analyzing the activities of visitors of the Leiden Ranking website

Purpose： To get a better understanding of the way in which university rankings are used.Design/methodology/approach： Detailed analysis of the activities of visitors of the website of the CWTS Leiden Ranking.Findings： Visitors of the Leiden Ranking website originate disproportionally from specific countries. They are more interested in impact indicators than in collaboration indicators, while they are about equally interested in size-dependent indicators and size-independent indicators. Many visitors do not seem to realize that they should decide themselves which criterion they consider most appropriate for ranking universities.Research limitations： The analysis is restricted to the website of a single university ranking. Moreover, the analysis does not provide any detailed insights into the motivations of visitors of university ranking websites.Practical implications： The Leiden Ranking website may need to be improved in order to make more clear to visitors that they should decide themselves which criterion they want to use for ranking universities.Originality/value： This is the first analysis of the activities of visitors of a university ranking website.

Does a Country/Region's Economic Status Affect Its Universities' Presence in International Rankings?

Purpose: Study how economic parameters affect positions in the Academic Ranking of World Universities' top 500 published by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Graduate School of Education in countries/regions with listed higher education institutions. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology used capitalises on the multi-variate characteristics of the data analysed. The multi-colinearity problem posed is solved by running principal components prior to regression analysis, using both classical(OLS) and robust(Huber and Tukey) methods. Findings: Our results revealed that countries/regions with long ranking traditions are highly competitive. Findings also showed that some countries/regions such as Germany, United Kingdom, Canada, and Italy, had a larger number of universities in the top positions than predicted by the regression model. In contrast, for Japan, a country where social and economic performance is high, the number of ARWU universities projected by the model was much larger than the actual figure. In much the same vein, countries/regions that invest heavily in education, such as Japan and Denmark, had lower than expected results.Research limitations: Using data from only one ranking is a limitation of this study, but the methodology used could be useful to other global rankings. Practical implications: The results provide good insights for policy makers. They indicate the existence of a relationship between research output and the number of universities per million inhabitants. Countries/regions, which have historically prioritised higher education, exhibited highest values for indicators that compose the rankings methodology; furthermore,minimum increase in welfare indicators could exhibited significant rises in the presence of their universities on the rankings.Originality/value: This study is well defined and the result answers important questions about characteristics of countries/regions and their higher education system.

From Paragon to Peer: China's Shifting Perspective on German Education

It is said that comparative education should start by addressing three questions:What is being compared,how is it being compared,and why?However,there is a fourth,more important question:What is it being compared with?The object of comparison is often a self-evident choice requiring little to no argument.

The World-Class Multiversity:Global Commonalities and National Characteristics

World-Class Universities(WCUs)are nationally embedded comprehensive higher education institutions(HEIs)that are closely engaged in the global knowledge system.The article reviews the conditions of possibility and evolution of WCUs.Three interpretations are used to explain worldwide higher education:neoliberal theory,institutional theory,and critical political economy,which give greater recognition than the other theories to the role of the state and variations between states.World higher education is evolving under conditions of globalization,organizational modernization(the New Public Management),and in some countries,marketization.These larger conditions have become manifest in higher education in three widespread tendencies:massification,the WCU movement,and organizational expansion.The last includes the strengthening of the role of the large multi-disciplinary multi-purpose HEIs(“multiversities”),in the form of both research-intensive WCUs with significant global presence,and other HEIs.The role of binary sector and specialist HEIs has declined.Elite WCUs gain status and strategic advantage in both quantity and quality:through growth and the expansion of scope,and through selectivity and research concentration.The balance between quantity and quality is now resolved at larger average size and broader scope than before.The final section of the article reviews WCUs in China and considers whether they might constitute a distinctive university model.

BRICS and International Collaborations in Higher Education in India

International cooperation and collaborations played an important role in the economic and educational development of several countries.In the 1950s and 1960s external aid was an important modality to establish cooperation between countries,especially between developing and developed countries.Cross-border activities in higher education used to take place mostly through cooperation projects and academic exchange programmes.The political returns to aid declined during the post-cold war period.Therefore,incentives to extend aid declined and markets and trade became more accepted modes of cooperation and collaboration in all sectors including education.International collaborations of today are very often motivated by economic incentives and are mediated through markets.The franchising and twinning arrangements,establishment of branch campuses,and promotion of cross-border student mobility are examples of market-based collaborative efforts in higher education.This paper discusses Indian cooperation and collaborations with foreign institutions focusing also on such efforts among the BRICS countries.It argues that the collaboration efforts among the BRICS countries may be more influenced by government-to-government efforts than mediated by markets.The paper shows that the BRICS countries at present are more engaged in cooperation and collaborations in higher education with developed countries.Collaborations among the BRICS countries are rather limited and are still at the nascent stages.Therefore,government initiatives and public action are needed at this stage to promote cooperation and expand collaboration in higher education among BRICS countries.