Do university rankings matter?

They seem to. But they shouldn’t in reality. A wise person once said that a school is only as good as the student. Perhaps, if there are any rankings there should be major rankings in education at the primary and secondary school levels. It is in the writer’s humble opinion that more intensive learning is best placed in preparing a student for higher tertiary education.

University rankings is a big business. Students are able to purchase a profile of their prospective university for USD15 or EURO12. How the profile was created is another question entirely. For example, the Quaquarelli Symonds (QS) rankings that everyone regards as something of a global authority uses a specific criteria that may not come across as accurate. Mainly because there are many other issues to take into consideration, and these may not have included every feasible balanced possibility.

The QS global rankings criteria include: peer review – 40%; recruiter review – 10%; faculty to student ration – 20%; citations per faculty at 20% and international orientation – 10%. QS takes into account universities with a medium of instruction in English only; thereby, leaving out some famous universities, like those in Germany, for example.

There are flaws in most systems. The QS system is no different. For example, QS rankings do not take into account social responsiveness. That is to say, universities may allocate resources into research and not enough into social responsiveness. Additionally, the ranking system is designed to say this university is better than that one, rather than how good a specific university is and if it has improved or regressed over the last year, and how.

If Ireland’s universities are placed in a regional context for English speaking universities, using GS rankings, according to Professor Philip Lane for Macroeconomics at the Trinity College Dublin; then Irish Universities when compared against those in the British Isles, do not rank badly at all. Some are even ahead of famous British Universities.

In 2010, Trinity ranked ninth in the British Isles and UCD ranked twentieth. Trinity was ahead of Warwick, York, Durham and St. Andrews, all very reputable institutions.

However, at the end of the day, it is the university community that really makes your university days memorable and special. Your professors and the friends you make when you are at school help you form a foundation of shared values and principles that make a difference in to your learning life.

So, look at the rankings if you must, just remember they are not perfect.

Reference articles

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/us-news-college-rankings-yes-they-matter/

http://www.irisheconomy.ie/index.php/tag/university-rankings/

http://newasiarepublic.com/?p=30182

http://mg.co.za/article/2010-09-24-do-university-rankings-matter