Introduction: University Rankings and European Higher Education

Abstract

Global university rankings have existed for only a decade and yet they have received unprecedented attention from higher education policy experts and scholars, as well as from politicians and the general public (Cheng and Liu, 2006, 2007; Erkkilä and Kauppi, 2010; Hazelkorn, 2008; Marginson and van der Wende, 2007; Salmi and Saroyan, 2007; Salmi, 2009). Previous analyses of global university rankings have concentrated on the methodology they use and their social effects from the perspective of efficiency and quality assurance (Dehon, Vermandele and Jacobs, 2009; Shin, Toutkoushian and Teichler, 2011), their impacts on higher education institutions (HEIs) (Hazelkorn, 2011) and their ability to reshape the higher education landscape in terms of its diversity (Kehm and Stensaker, 2009). There are also studies on the global governance of higher education that identify university rankings as one of its elements (King, 2010; Shin and Kehm, 2013).Global university rankings have existed for only a decade and yet they have received unprecedented attention from higher education policy experts and scholars, as well as from politicians and the general public (Cheng and Liu, 2006, 2007; Erkkilä and Kauppi, 2010; Hazelkorn, 2008; Marginson and van der Wende, 2007; Salmi and Saroyan, 2007; Salmi, 2009). Previous analyses of global university rankings have concentrated on the methodology they use and their social effects from the perspective of efficiency and quality assurance (Dehon, Vermandele and Jacobs, 2009; Shin, Toutkoushian and Teichler, 2011), their impacts on higher education institutions (HEIs) (Hazelkorn, 2011) and their ability to reshape the higher education landscape in terms of its diversity (Kehm and Stensaker, 2009). There are also studies on the global governance of higher education that identify university rankings as one of its elements (King, 2010; Shin and Kehm, 2013).