ABSTRACT

The Global Academic Rankings Game provides a much-needed perspective on how countries and universities react to academic rankings. Based on a unified case methodology of eleven key countries and academic institutions, this comprehensive volume provides expert analysis on this emerging phenomenon at a time when world rankings are becoming increasingly visible and influential on the international stage. Each chapter provides an overview of government and national policies as well as an in-depth examination of the impact that rankings have played on policy, practice, and academic life in Australia, Chile, China, Germany, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Global Academic Rankings Game contributes to the continuing debate about the influence of rankings in higher education and is an invaluable resource for higher education scholars and administrators as they tackle rankings in their own national and institutional contexts.

chapter 2|26 pages

Managing Expectations

An Australian Perspective on the Impact and Challenges of Adopting a University Rankings Narrative

chapter 3|19 pages

Global University Rankings From Afar

The Case of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile

chapter 5|18 pages

Embracing and Rejecting Rankings

The German Case

chapter 6|27 pages

Imposing Global University Rankings on Local Academic Culture

Insights from the National University of Malaysia

chapter 7|22 pages

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Second among Equals in the Netherlands?

chapter 8|25 pages

Global University Rankings in the Polish Context

The University of Warsaw, a Case Study

chapter 9|24 pages

The Ranking Game on the Russian Battlefield

The Case of the Higher School of Economics

chapter 10|27 pages

Middle East Technical University

Quest for Academic Excellence not Driven by Global Rankings at One Turkish Institution

chapter 11|24 pages

"There is a World Out There We Can Step Into"

The University of Reading (UK) and the World Rankings

chapter 12|23 pages

Meeting the Rankings Challenge

How a Young American University Enhances its Global Position