Synopses & Reviews
Global University Rankings explores the novel topic of global university rankings and their effects on higher education in Europe. The contributions in this volume outline different discourses on global university rankings and explore the related changes concerning European higher education policies, disciplinary traditions and higher education institutions. The first global university rankings were published less than a decade ago, but these policy instruments have become highly influential in shaping the approaches and institutional realities of higher education. The rankings have portrayed European academic institutions in a varying light. There is intense reflexivity over the figures, leading to ideational changes and institutional adaptation that take surprisingly similar forms in different European countries. The contributions in this book critically assess global university rankings as a policy discourse that would seem to be instrumental to higher education reform throughout Europe.
Review
To come
Synopsis
This collection explores global university rankings and their effects on European higher education policies, disciplinary traditions and higher education institutions.
About the Author
Tero Erkkilä is Assistant Professor in Political Science at the University of Helsinki, Finland. His previous publications include Government Transparency.
Table of Contents
Preface
PART I: GLOBAL UNIVERSITY RANKINGS: HISTORY, CONCEPTS AND INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
1. Introduction; Tero Erkkilä
2. The Impact of Rankings on the European Higher Education Landscape; Barbara M. Kehm
3. Global, Asian and European Backgrounds of Global University Rankings; Bob Reinalda
PART II: UNIVERSITY RANKINGS AND INSTITUTIONAL COMPETITION: COMMODIFICATION, STRATIFICATION AND UNIFORMITY
4. Convergence and Divergence in Research, Higher Education and Innovation
Policies; Antti Pelkonen and Tuula Teräväinen
5. Buffer, Filter or Channel? Åse Gornitzka
6. The Drift to Conformity; Jon Nixon
7. Polish Higher Education and the Global Academic Competition; Dorota Dakowska
8. Reforming Higher Education Institutions in Finland; Tero Erkkilä and Ossi Piirone
PART III: UNIVERSITY RANKINGS AND DISCIPLINARITY: CHALLENGES FOR SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES
9. Measuring Excellence in Social Sciences and Humanities; Arto Mustajoki
10. Ranking European Social Science and Stratifying Global Knowledge; Niilo Kauppi
11. Global Disciplinary Rankings and Images of Quality; Erkki Berndtson
12. The Colonization of the Academic Field by Rankings; Richard Münch
PART IV: CONCLUSIONS
13. Global Rankings as a Marker of Revaluing the University; James H. Mittelman
14. Conclusions; Tero Erkkilä
Index