University decision making and prestige: An empirical study

Four tiers

“…For example, do institutions in the same tier have similar aspirations, and are they substantively different from the aspirations that are shared by institutions in the other tiers? There is some evidence that they do in Cyrenne and Grant's (2008) study of factors that affect the prestige and behaviour of Canadian universities. Cyrenne and Grant found that universities ranked differently on Maclean's reputational survey placed different emphases on research, student selectivity and community service.…”

Higher Education Evaluation in Germany

“…In many countries, on the other hand -including Germany -these rankings are not controlled by the state and thus become a very powerful and influential instrument in the hand of professional institutes, even if these are sometimes under state supervision. Nonetheless, the institutes that create rankings have to manage the balancing act between a comprehensive, valid and fair assessment of the universities' research on the one side, and teaching performance on the other, where these are restricted by limited resources and funds (Cyrenne & Grant, 2009).…”

“…In addition to this strengthening of the universities' orientation by demand, the demystification of HE and the promotion of competition between the individual universities are referred to as arguments for the establishment of rankings (Hongcai, 2009, p. 42). Furthermore, it is pointed out that national and international reputations could be inhanced through international comparisons, a target set by many universities (Cyrenne & Grant, 2009). The danger inherent in rankings is that they might overemphasise individual indicators, thus causing universities to aim at the fulfillment of these indicators instead of concentrating on the optimisation of the performance areas connected with them.…”

Measurements and metrics in small technology and knowledge entrepreneurship

“…Third, differing applications drive innovations that will require differing and often multiple critical dimension development for each technology being utilized. Fourth, the boundary conditions constraining today's innovations and products are much stricter than ever before [12]. Fifth, drivers are much more important to these new innovations.…”

“…A better understanding of the relationship between research and ranking is worthwhile as great emphasis is placed both on rankings [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] and research activity [1][2][3][4] . In fact, rankings of programs, departments, faculties and universities appear to be of great interest in helping outside stakeholders assess relative quality 1,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] . Consequently, the basis of rankings is important regardless of their accuracy.…”