The magazine Spiked is descended from Living Marxism although some think it is now more libertarian than socialist. It has just published the latest edition of its free speech university rankings.
These are not actually rankings but a classification or a rating, since they just divide UK universities into three groups. They have been subjected to mockery from sections of the academic blogosphere, including WONKHE, that might be justified on technical grounds. This is, however, such an important topic that any sort of publicity has to be welcomed.
Universities are divided into three categories:
RED; "A students’ union, university or institution that is hostile to free speech and free expression, mandating explicit restrictions on speech, including, but not limited to, bans on specific ideologies, political affiliations, beliefs, books, speakers or words."
AMBER; "A students’ union, university or institution that chills free speech and free expression through restricting vague and subjective types of speech, such as ‘offensive’ or ‘insulting’ speech, or requiring burdensome vetting procedures for events, speakers, posters or publications. Many policies in this category might not explicitly limit speech, but have the potential to be used to that end, due to purposefully vague or careless wording."
GREEN; "A students’ union, university or institution that, as far as we are aware, places no significant restrictions on free speech and expression – other than where such speech or expression is unlawful."
The roll of honour in the green category includes exactly seven universities, none of them in the Russell Group: Anglia Ruskin, Buckingham, Hertfordshire, Robert Gordon, Trinity St David, West of Scotland, and Winchester.
Tuesday, February 06, 2018
Interesting data from Webometrics
The Webometrics rankings perform the invaluable function of ranking 27,000 plus universities or entities claiming to be universities around the world. Also, their Excellence indicator identifies those institutions, 5,776 this year, with any claim to involvement in research.
Consequently, it has often been used in unofficial national rankings in countries, especially in Africa, where very few places can make it into the top 500 or 1,000 universities included in the better known international rankings.
However, there seems to be a universal law that when a ranking becomes significant it will have unintended and perverse consequences. In the UK we have seen massive inflation in the number of first and upper second class degrees partly because this is a n element in popular national rankings. Sophisticated campaigns can also produce significant gains in the QS academic opinion survey which has a 40% weighting and a few hundred strategic citations can boost the most unlikely universities in the research impact indicator of THE world and regional rankings.
Webometrics also has indicator that seems to be susceptible to bad practices. This is "Presence", the number of pages in the main webdomain including subdomains and file types such as rich files, with a 5% weighting. Apparently this can be easily manipulated. Unlike other rankings, Webometrics does not attempt to ignore this but has highlighted it in several recent tweets, which is helpful since it indicates who might be manipulating the variable. It is possible that there might have been a misunderstanding of the Webometrics guidelines, an error somewhere, or perhaps some totally valid and innocent explanation. If the latter is the case iIwill be happy to publish a statement.
Here is a selection of universities with their world rank in the Webometrics Presence indicator. The overall rank is in brackets.
4. University of Nairobi, Kenya (874)
5. Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia (433)
9. Federal university of Santa Catarina, Brazil (439)
15. Charles University in Prague (203)
17. University of Costa Rica (885)
20. University of the West Indies St Augustine (1792)
32. National University of Honduras (3777)
40. Mahidol University, Thailand (548)
55. Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Indonesia (6394)
Consequently, it has often been used in unofficial national rankings in countries, especially in Africa, where very few places can make it into the top 500 or 1,000 universities included in the better known international rankings.
However, there seems to be a universal law that when a ranking becomes significant it will have unintended and perverse consequences. In the UK we have seen massive inflation in the number of first and upper second class degrees partly because this is a n element in popular national rankings. Sophisticated campaigns can also produce significant gains in the QS academic opinion survey which has a 40% weighting and a few hundred strategic citations can boost the most unlikely universities in the research impact indicator of THE world and regional rankings.
Webometrics also has indicator that seems to be susceptible to bad practices. This is "Presence", the number of pages in the main webdomain including subdomains and file types such as rich files, with a 5% weighting. Apparently this can be easily manipulated. Unlike other rankings, Webometrics does not attempt to ignore this but has highlighted it in several recent tweets, which is helpful since it indicates who might be manipulating the variable. It is possible that there might have been a misunderstanding of the Webometrics guidelines, an error somewhere, or perhaps some totally valid and innocent explanation. If the latter is the case iIwill be happy to publish a statement.
Here is a selection of universities with their world rank in the Webometrics Presence indicator. The overall rank is in brackets.
4. University of Nairobi, Kenya (874)
5. Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia (433)
9. Federal university of Santa Catarina, Brazil (439)
15. Charles University in Prague (203)
17. University of Costa Rica (885)
20. University of the West Indies St Augustine (1792)
32. National University of Honduras (3777)
40. Mahidol University, Thailand (548)
55. Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Indonesia (6394)
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Fake Rankings from Nigeria?
Although the Webometrics rankings, based mainly on web activities, receive little attention from the good and the great among the world 's university administrators they do serve the important function of providing some sort of assessment of over 20,000 universities or entities that claim to be universities. They get to places where the market leaders, Shanghai Ranking, THE and QS, cannot go.
As a result, the media in several African countries have from time to time published local rankings based on Webometrics that do not appear all that different from what would be expected from a ranking based on research or reputation.
For example, the current top five in Webometrics are:
1. University of Ibadan
2. Covenant University
3. Obafemi Awolowo University
4. University of Nigeria
5. University of Lagos.
The Nigerian press have in the last few years announced the results of rankings supposedly produced by the country's national university commission. In 2016 Nigerian Scholars reported that the NUC had produced a ranking with the top five being:
1. University of Ibadan
2. University of Lagos
3. University of Benin
4. Obafemi Awolowo University
5. Ahmadu Bello University.
Now we have this published in The Nation .Professor Adamu Abubakar Abdulrasheed, Executive Secretary of the NUC, has announced that the rankings attributed to the NUC were fake and that the commission had not published any ranking for several years.
This is a bit strange. Does that mean that nobody on the commission noticed that fake rankings were being published in its name until now? There may be more to the story.
For the moment, it looks as though Nigeria and other countries in Africa may have to continue relying on Webometrics.
As a result, the media in several African countries have from time to time published local rankings based on Webometrics that do not appear all that different from what would be expected from a ranking based on research or reputation.
For example, the current top five in Webometrics are:
1. University of Ibadan
2. Covenant University
3. Obafemi Awolowo University
4. University of Nigeria
5. University of Lagos.
The Nigerian press have in the last few years announced the results of rankings supposedly produced by the country's national university commission. In 2016 Nigerian Scholars reported that the NUC had produced a ranking with the top five being:
1. University of Ibadan
2. University of Lagos
3. University of Benin
4. Obafemi Awolowo University
5. Ahmadu Bello University.
Now we have this published in The Nation .Professor Adamu Abubakar Abdulrasheed, Executive Secretary of the NUC, has announced that the rankings attributed to the NUC were fake and that the commission had not published any ranking for several years.
This is a bit strange. Does that mean that nobody on the commission noticed that fake rankings were being published in its name until now? There may be more to the story.
For the moment, it looks as though Nigeria and other countries in Africa may have to continue relying on Webometrics.
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