The research offers a practical aid to the use of rankings, as rankings are primarily tools of providing and gathering information about higher education

Universities on the Crossroads of National and Global Rankings

Social sciences are „shooting at a moving target” when trying to interpret the university rankings that have spread worldwide in the past quarter of a century. Rankings have been subject to a series of criticisms and debates since their inception, and these are not of an abstract, methodological nature, but conflicts which have direct relevance to university politics and sometimes also legislation. All of these have shaped and still shape rankings, while rankings shape higher education through their measurement methods and indicators, prompting institutions and higher education policies to define new priorities.

On behalf of Tempus Public Foundation (in the framework of the Campus Mundi project) a research was conducted to give an overview of the criticism that rankings have faced for their methodology and from university politics, highlighting one of the most important elements of rankings, the use of indicators. In addition, the study present an aspect that has been given little discussion so far.

As a case study, the research analyse the ranking positions of Hungarian higher education institutions, more specifically the aspects used by rankings that foreign students interested in Hungarian higher education use, complementing this with the aspects of the higher education rankings of countries that are dominant in the international mobility of Hungarian students.

The perspective is based on the interpretative frame developed during the research, the essence of which is that rankings do not implement the measurement of the performance of the institutions, but are the currently most efficient media communication tools of higher education.

In sum, universities are at the crossroads of the standards of global and national rankings, a fact that primarily faces them with a task of communication, and the users with challenges of interpretation.

To view the study results, please click on the link below.

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Last modified: 19-06-2017