While on the ranking issue, let me share with you one good article on 'To Be or Not to Be-- A World- CLass University?' by Jamil Salmi for International Higher Education, Number 80: Spring 2015 (www.bc.edu/cihe) na ka.
The author mentions that more systematic ways of identifying world-class universities have appeared since 2003 and that many governments have tried to boost their top univeristies to make substantial progress.
He argues that measuring the effectiveness of excellence initatives isn't easy because the efforts to upgrade a university take time and that in-depth analysis of case studies is needed to 'establish elements of causality'.
In addition, he points out that 'the overemphasis on research sends the wrong signal that the quality of teaching and learning is not important.', 'the focus on world-class universities is likely to further promote elitism', and 'it hinders the ability of social scientists to conduct scientific inquiries on issues politically sensitive in countries like China, Russia, etc.
After all, the governments shouldn't focus exclusively on building world-class universities but develop more balanced higher education system that addresses learning needs of a diverse student population.
In Thailand, we've been discussing a lot about world-class universities (and high schools) with huge funding support. I'm sure many questions have been raised and may need to be repeated:
How long would the policy last? Are we really on the right track and are we leaving quite a number of institutions behind when they should be able to rise with heightened quality if only some more resources and technical support are given? Do we really care for student learning or our university name/country on the world-class lists?
Many more questions are to be challenged for more balanced and practical actions.
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