Rankings as global (monetising) scopic systems

Susan L. Robertson, Kris Olds

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (Book)Researchpeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

As Ellen Hazelkorn remarks in the opening paragraph of her book Rankings and the Reshaping of Higher Education (2011, 1) ‘the first global ranking of universities was developed in 2003 by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University – and the rest, as they say, is history’. Yet this was no ordinary unravelling of history in the higher education world. Within months of the launch of the Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) in 2003, a major European meeting was told that Europe was not just behind the United States, but also other economies around the world. With only ten European universities amongst the top-ranked fifty (the highest of them in the United Kingdom) compared with thirty-five universities for the United States, Europe’s policymakers released a rush of institutional pronouncements on the need to reform Europe’s higher education systems.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationGlobal Rankings and the Geopolitics of Higher Education
Subtitle of host publicationUnderstanding the Influence and Impact of Rankings on Higher Education, Policy and Society
EditorsEllen Hazelkorn
Place of PublicationAbingdon UK
PublisherRoutledge
Chapter3
Pages54-76
Number of pages23
Edition1st
ISBN (Electronic)9781315738550
ISBN (Print)9781138828117, 9781138828124
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017
Externally publishedYes

Publication series

NameInternational Studies in Higher Education

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