This article reviews the history of world university rankings and their large-scale impact. It then analyzes some of the criticism of the world ranking systems before exploring their impact in the context of Thai universities. The authors' assertions centre on the premise that much of the criticism of these ranking systems can be divided into…

This study aims to critically and systematically investigate the contemporary discourse within scholarship on world-class universities in different higher education context. It applies critical discourse analysis to review articles from some top higher education academic journals and books published between 2000 and 2019. Exploring the notion of…

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the validity of college rankings, by investigating to what extent measurements employed by rankings are good proxies for evaluating educational practices at liberal arts colleges. Using a hierarchical linear modeling with data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, Integrated…

Reviews of editorial practices and academic studies have shown that journalists often rely on organization websites--and online newsrooms in particular--to inform news stories. Yet, at a time when many academics are called upon as experts by the media, university newsrooms have been ignored. To fill this gap, this study assesses newsrooms of…

State education rankings published by "U.S. News & World Report," "Education Week," and others are based partly on achievement tests, which measure student learning, and partly on other factors not directly related to student learning. These rankings are aggregated in a way that provide misleading results by: (1) ignoring…

Consequences of competition for global university rankings, such as changes in funding modes, have been extensively discussed in the field of higher education. However, few studies have reviewed its implications on knowledge production. This study provides a contextualised method for theorising the implications of this competition on the…

College rankings have become a ubiquitous part of American higher education. As the popularity of rankings has increased, so have the number of research studies attempting to better understand the impact rankings have on college/university admissions outcomes. In the past, these studies have focused almost exclusively on elite national…

Rankings are a powerful force in higher education, swaying the enrollment decisions of prospective students and affecting the opinions of parents, board members, and policymakers. In the words of one provost, "The rankings matter to our university because they matter to people who matter to us." Rankings are also a business--one that is…

The Accountability Plan is an annual report that is closely aligned with the Board of Governors' 2025 System Strategic Plan. This report enhances the System's commitment to accountability and strategic planning by fostering greater coordination between University Boards of Trustees and the Board of Governors regarding each institution's direction…

Critical Race Theory contends that institutions codify and sustain racial inequalities even absent explicitly racist motives or actions. College ranking systems perpetuate such institutional racism by socially constructing minority-serving institutions (MSIs) as less valuable and prestigious. By assigning greater worth to criteria favoring more…

Research has suggested that changes in rankings have an impact on admissions outcomes at colleges and universities. This study incorporates organization theory to explain these mechanisms and other external forces driving the pursuit of prestige in higher education. Beyond updating and replicating previous findings related to the impact of college…

Since its debut in 1983, the "U.S. News & World Report College Guide" has become the premier "consumer report" of higher education. We find that peer assessment, which is the largest component of the "U.S. News & World Report" ranking function, contains a penalty for religiously affiliated schools that is independent of the other "U.S. News &…