Assessing the Quality of Universities: A Gedankenexperiment Derived from Creating Stakeholder Value

Abstract

World University Ranking (WUR) systems play a significant role in how universities are funded and whom they can attract as faculty and students. Yet, for the purpose of comparing universities as institutions of higher education, current systems are readily gamed, provide little guidance about what needs to be improved, and fail to allow for the diversity of stakeholder needs in making comparisons. We suggest a list of criteria that a WUR system should meet, and which none of the current popular systems appears satisfy. By using as a starting point the goal of creating value for the diverse and sometimes competing stakeholder requirements for a university, we suggest via a thought experiment a rating process that is consistent with all the criteria, and a way in which it might be trialled. Also, the resulting system itself adds value for individual users by allowing them to tune it to their own particular circumstances. However, an answer to the simple question ‘Which is the best university’ may well be: there is no simple answer.