What do university performance rankings really mean?

Any time seven of our universities achieve improved positions in a major international ranking exercise – the QS World University Rankings 2024 – is a moment for celebration. It reflects positively on the Irish higher education system as a whole.

In the rankings published last week, Trinity College Dublin was the top-rated Irish institution, climbing 17 places into 81st position, with University College Dublin Ireland’s second best performer at 171st place and University of Galway coming third. University College Cork (UCC) was in 292nd place, up 11; University of Limerick jumped more than 100 places to 426th and Dublin City University moved up 35 places to 436th. Maynooth University was ranked in the 801-850 category (up from the 801-1,000 category) and Technological University Dublin (TUD) was in the 851-900 category (up from the 851-1,000 category).

This is all the more significant given the fact that our universities do not have the level of financial resources that universities in other major economies have, such as MIT in the US and Cambridge in the UK.

But while acknowledging what QS tells us – the good and not so good – we should adopt a high degree of caution. This should not be interpreted by the universities as an effort to rain on their parade.

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Six out of eight Irish universities fell in terms of academic reputation and no Irish university makes the top 100 for research impact

However, it appears that much of the improvement in the Irish position is due to adjustments this year to the ranking methodology, such as sustainability and employment outcomes, as well as adjustments to academic and employer reputation.

According to QS, our universities have made “impressive strides” in their ability to produce skilled and work-ready graduates. This is good news. Our economic model, which relies substantially on foreign direct investment, is effective only if we continue to provide the skills that these and indigenous companies need. A better alignment between the skills and competences of our graduates and social and economic needs has long been a policy objective of successive governments. That both TCD and UCD are in the world’s top 100 for employment outcomes can only be good news for the IDA and Enterprise Ireland.

But some of the so-called “good” news actually masks key weaknesses, for instance the positive showing in the category of international student ratios. Given the unresolved underfunding of our higher education system, universities have for some time been filling the gap by recruiting international students. Taken too far, this is a danger to the stability of the system and is no substitute for a sustainable funding model.

That only Galway University is among the top 300 in QS’s measure of class size and resource allocation with UCC next placed outside the top 500 speaks to the continuing impact, over a decade later, of staffing restrictions implemented in response to the recession.

The report speaks of “a trend of comparative stagnation”. As evidence, it reports that six out of eight Irish universities fell in terms of academic reputation and no Irish university makes the top 100 for research impact. It is the same for global collaboration. The investment in, conduct of and outcomes from research have long been the Achilles heel of the Irish university system when it comes to international rankings.

While the rankings include other measures, this cloaks the fact that research is the dominant metric. Not only does this skew the outcome but it benefits wealthy and historically-advantaged elite institutions.

The legislation put forward by Minister Harris to reform the funding and structures of our research system, merging Science Foundation Ireland with the Irish Research Council, has the potential to bring about a more coherent public research system. But without a worked-out strategy, supported by sustainable multiannual funding and an attractive career path for researchers, scaling the heights of international research will be difficult.

So how do rankings work and are they actually important and meaningful?

There are approximately seventeen global university rankings – QS is one of the big three alongside Shanghai’s Academic Ranking of World Universities and the Times Higher Education World Rankings. The overwhelming majority of rankings are developed by commercial, often media, companies with only approximately 7 per cent developed by a government organisation.

The best course for Ireland is not to chase rankings, but to focus on what outcomes from higher education and research our economy and society need

Rankings compare universities using a range of indicators which are given weightings determined by the compiler and each compiler chooses its own methodology which changes regularly. There are no internationally objective criteria or metrics. Annual comparisons are misguided because institutions do not, and cannot, change significantly from year to year.

Many indicators, or their proxies, have an indirect relationship to quality. A case in point is QS’s use of academic and employer reputation, student-faculty ratio, citations, international faculty and international student ratio.

When weightings are attached, rankings are essentially a measure of research and reputation. It is noteworthy that teaching and learning, the student experience or societal engagement feature less in the rankings – criteria that are key objectives of the Irish system.

At the macro level, while the positions may change depending on the ranking, they do tell us something about the competitive advantages of our institutions and our countries in a changing global landscape. Over the years, they have tracked the growing strength of universities in Asia vis-a-vis the relative decline of universities in the US, and UK, specifically. The pipeline of countries now appearing among the top 500 highlights the ever-increasing internationalisation of science.

As the world around us changes, rankings are being challenged to respond to public and policy desires for a more responsive education system to help solve societal challenges, focus on equality, diversity and inclusion, improve student success, and undertake impactful research and innovation. US Education Secretary Miguel Cardona called rankings a “joke” which did “little more than Xerox privilege.” Over time, we might see a meaningful exercise.

The best course for Ireland is not to chase rankings, but to focus on what outcomes from higher education and research our economy and society need. We can celebrate when this focus coincides with improved positions in international rankings.

Ellen Hazelkorn and Tom Boland are joint managing partners of BH Associates (www.bhassociates.eu). Ellen has published several books on university rankings.