How Dare They? HE Sector Reacts to the King's Speech

 Occasionally there are moments when a few casual words suddenly illuminate things that have been obscured. 

One such moment was when the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford expressed her embarrassment  that one of the university's alumni had failed to express appropriate deference towards experts. It would seem that the a major function of higher education is not the encouragement of critical thought but the acceptance of anything that has been approved by academic experts. This was especially ironic since the claim was made at a summit held by Times Higher Education, whose expertise in the field of university ranking is somewhat questionable. 

The recent King's Speech contained a bland announcement that the government would "ensure young people have the knowledge and skills to succeed" by combining technical and academic qualifications.  Also, the government will attempt to reduce enrollment in "poor quality university degrees and increase the number undertaking high quality apprenticeships." 

It is not unlikely that any such initiatives will fail to get off the ground or will crash soon after take off and even if implemented they would probably not be very effective or even effective at all.

Research Professional News, however, reports that industry insiders are incensed that the government has dared to say anything that could be considered critical of British universities. Diana Beech, Chief Executive of the London Higher Group of Institutions said "it is beyond belief that the UK government would even contemplate asking His Majesty the King to speak negatively of the national asset that is our world-leading higher education and research sector."

The King is not speaking negatively of the entire sector. He is talking about proposed efforts to improve the sector. And surely the "brightest and the best" of the world are more likely to come to Britain if they think there are efforts to bring about positive change.

It seems that the academic establishment wants everybody to pretend that there is nothing wrong with British universities. That, in the long run is not going to do anyone any good.

Crisis, conflict and global rankings

Just published in the Journal of Adult Learning, Knowledge and Innovation

Crisis, conflict and global rankings

Read here

Journal of Adult Learning, Knowledge and Innovation

Volume/Issue: 

Accepted Manuscript / Online First

Abstract

Global university rankings have always been associated with international political and economic conflicts. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic there were signs that scientific and academic globalism was breaking down. The pandemic, the various measures taken to combat it, and military and ideological conflicts have led to the breakdown of international academic cooperation, the formation of very different research complexes, and the development of new regional ranking systems.

Two Decades of Rankings: Rising and Falling in ARWU

 Most rankings are of little value for identifying trends over more that a couple of years. Changes in methodology, and sometimes a lack of access to old editions make year on year comparisons difficult or impossible. The Shanghai Rankings, aka ARWU, have maintained a generally consistent methodology over two decades and publish data going back to the founding year of 2003.

So it is possible to use ARWU to look for  patterns in the  world's research and higher education landscape. Here are some "winners" and "losers", based on the number of universities in the ARWU top 500 in 2004, when Shanghai changed the initial methodology to include the social sciences and 2023. This is far from a perfect measure; for a start this ranking does not takes no account of the humanities and relies to much on old Nobel and Fields laureates. Even so it does give us some idea of the shift in the academic world's centre of gravity.

Rising

Australia from 14 in 2004 to 24 in 2023 (and from 2 in the top 100 to 7)

Brazil from 4 to 5

China from 16 to 98 (and from zero in the top 100 to 11)

Malaysia from zero to one

New Zealand from 3 to 4

Saudi Arabia from zero to 6

Singapore 2 in the top 500 in 2004 and 2023 (but rising from zero in the top 100 in 2004 to 2 in 2023)

South Korea from 8 to 11

Falling

Canada from 23 to 18 

France from 22 to 18

Germany from 43 to 31

India from 3 to 1

Israel from 7 to 5 (but rising from 1 to 3 in the top 100)

Italy from 24 to 16

Japan from 36 to 12 (and from 5 in the top 100 to 2)

Switzerland from 8 to 7

United Kingdom from 42 to 38 (and from 11 in the top 100 to 8)

United States from 170 to 120 (and from 51 in the top 100 to 38)

The last two decades have seen a massive increase in the research capabilities of universities in Australia, China, South Korea, and Singapore. The rest of Asia, including Japan and India, has stagnated or even fallen relatively and perhaps absolutely.

The biggest losers are the USA, UK, and Germany although Canada, France, Italy and Switzerland have also not done so well.

More recently, Saudi Arabia has noticeably improved and may soon be followed by other Middle eastern states.