Rankings Practices: Understanding the Impact of World University Rankings on Policies and Practices in Dutch Higher Education

Since the first publications of World University Rankings in 2003, rankings got established as a phenomenon of modern academia. The emergence of funding-based research schemes, the urge for accountability and the globalizing academic market in which universities must compete for resources and students generated an interest in tools to indicate quality and status of higher education. Rankings, in this sense, disperse necessary market information and function as a legitimization for quality, reputation and international outlook. Through the application of quality indicators and data weightings,... Mehr ...