Sir, – I fully agree with your editorial "Why university rankings are flawed" (December 17th).
International ranking agencies focus almost entirely on research to evaluate university performance. But educare means to draw out and thus develop students' minds. The rankings completely ignore this core function of a university. This inappropriately narrow approach to evaluating universities has gone too long unchallenged.
These rankings effectively ignore excellence in the humanities – languages, art, history, philosophy, even conservation, as these are not associated with copious funds or high-end publications. Lecturers in these subjects are also ignored as they do not help boost university rankings. Yet students of such subjects will play a critical role in shaping society, both creatively and culturally.
Rankings also produce gender bias, since more men than women focus on research at the expense of other university functions and duties. Repeated selection for those men over others can ultimately lead to a dysfunctional institution – and much disillusionment especially among female staff.
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A key point of my equality tribunal case against NUI Galway that I won in November 2014 was that the interpretation of the criteria had shown a research-oriented bias, resulting in extreme gender discrimination in that round of promotions.
Why not focus on gender-related rankings? Ireland currently ranks amongst the worst in Europe for its academic glass ceiling index (GCI).
The Higher Education Authority is now threatening sanctions on institutions that do not improve their gender balance, but they also annually publish higher education institution staff statistics by gender. These enable the tabulation of universities ranked by per cent of senior female academics.
University efforts to improve their ranking might in turn result in Ireland improving its abysmal international glass ceiling index record. – Yours, etc,
MICHELINE
SHEEHY SKEFFINGTON,
Clarinbridge,
Co Galway.