University Rankings: Evidence and a Conceptual Framework

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Fowles, Jacob; Frederickson, H. George; Koppell, Jonathan G. S.
• 署名单位: University of Kansas; University of Kansas; Arizona State University; Arizona State University-Tempe
• 刊物名称: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-3352
• DOI: 10.1111/puar.12610
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 790-+
• 关键词: report college rankings; WORLD-REPORT; u.s.-news; US-NEWS; QUALITY; admissions; management; ratings

摘要

University ranking has high public visibility, the ranking business has flourished, and institutions of higher education have not been able to ignore it. This study of university ranking presents general considerations of ranking and institutional responses to it, particularly considering reactions to ranking, ranking as a self-fulfilling prophecy, and ranking as a means of transforming qualities into quantities. The authors present a conceptual framework of university ranking based on three propositions and carry out a descriptive statistical analysis of U.S. and international ranking data to evaluate those propositions. The first proposition of university ranking is that ranking systems are demarcated by a high degree of stability, equilibrium, and path dependence. The second proposition links ranking to institutional identity. The third proposition posits that rankings function as a catalyst for institutional isomorphism. The conclusion reviews some important new developments in university ranking.