University rankings and the scientification of social sciences and humanities

Stratilatis, Costas

doi:10.3354/esep00144

Cited by 16 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…In short, neoliberalism is an approach to public policy that centers the principles of the free market and simultaneously deemphasizes the utility of governmental oversight or public investment in public goods (Harvey, 2005). In this way, a critical assumption of neoliberalism is that all activities and goods can and should be measured for comparative and competitive purposes (Gonzales & Martinez, 2014;Stratilatis, 2014).…”

Section: Neoliberalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On this note, there is a notable connection between neoliberalism and the privileging of a scientific epistemology (Pasque, Carducci, Kuntz, & Gildersleeve, 2012;Stratilatis, 2014). Writing over three decades ago, Bleicher (1982) asserted that markets and science are tightly linked, since markets often thrive from developments and innovation derived from science.…”

Section: Neoliberalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ranking Regimes and the Production of Knowledge in Academia: (Re)shaping Faculty Work?

Gonzales

Núñez

2014

EPAA

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In this integrated review of literature, we address a powerful movement among interrelated organizations that we call the "ranking regime." We argue that the ostensive purpose of this regime is to identify "world class" universities, and thus to organize post-secondary education into a competitive transnational market. Although extant research has addressed how rankings are reshaping the field of higher education, there is little work that addresses the influence of rankings on the evaluation of faculty work and the production of knowledge. Thus, we review existing studies that have focused on the intersection of this ranking regime, faculty work, and faculty evaluation in order to assess the implications of the ranking regime for the production of knowledge within academia and for faculty evaluation. We argue that the ranking regime affects the production and evaluation of knowledge by promoting individualism, standardization, commodification, and homogenization. We offer policy and practice implications as well as directions for future research.

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Section: Neoliberalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Neoliberalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ranking Regimes and the Production of Knowledge in Academia: (Re)shaping Faculty Work?

Gonzales

Núñez

2014

EPAA

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“…Although teaching hours and service to students are increased for tenured compared to non-tenured faculty (Antony & Hayden 2009), the effect of tenure on teaching performance remains to be proven quantitatively (notwithstanding the fact that teaching performance is very hard to quantify, e.g. Stergiou & Lessenich 2014, Stratilatis 2014.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tenure and academic deadwood

Nikolioudakis¹,

Tsikliras²,

Somarakis³

et al. 2016

Ethics. Sci. Environ. Polit.

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The introduction of market forces into higher education (i.e. marketization) in recent decades goes along with a sharp decline in tenured positions offered, accompanied by polemic voices against tenure. The main claim, that tenure reduces the productivity of senior faculty, has not been thoroughly tested, with existing scarce evidence being controversial. We tested this hypothesis by analyzing the number of publications of 2136 currently full professors of natural sciences, drawn from 123 universities distributed in 15 countries, during the period 1996 to 2014. Our results showed that long-term productivity of full professors increased, irrespectively of subject field, geographic area, and university rank. This suggests that tenure does not lead to motivation loss and academic deadwood. Our results have policy, academic, and ethical implications related to human resource management, academic freedom, and educational quality, and tenure polemicists should find an argument other than lowered post-tenure productivity to support their stand.

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“…Indeed, the desire to meet rating criteria on "international student body" could lead to lowering the admissions barrier for foreign students (for example their level of Russian), resulting in the overall deterioration of the level of education. Other drawbacks of the focus on ratings is unreasonable amounts being spent on recruiting foreign professors, the negligence of non-rated aspects of universities' activities, the underperformance of humanities universities compared to those specialized in natural sciences [35], the unreliability of the data used by the ranking agencies with their "pseudo-scientific image" [36] and the fact that rankings fail to grasp the singularities of a university [37].…”

Section: The Consequences Of Importing Foreign Normsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementation of International Norms in Russia: The Case of Higher Education

Crowley-Vigneau

Baykov

Kalyuzhnova

2020

Vysš. obraz. Ross. (Print)

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This article analyses the reasons why Russia adopts foreign norms in the sphere of higher education, looking at how isomorphism, Transnational Advocacy Networks and the global market for education have brought about the country’s integration in the global network of universities. It investigates how Russia strives to adopt international and western educational norms by adhering to the Bologna process and launching projects such as 5-100 to reinforce the competitiveness of its universities on the global stage, but remains concerned about security and national identity issues. These fears have resulted in the government prioritizing the adherence to formal criteria while preserving the historical content of its higher education, thus leading to a dichotomy between substance and structure. This mismatch between the organization of higher education and its content leads to an ineffective implementation of international norms but also to significant disruptions in the existing system. Attempts to levy the advantages of both systems have had opposite results. Indeed, the risks of sudden change are multifold: the sudden “catch-up” mode leads to resistance and to a decline in the overall quality of education in those universities lacking the institutions to support the fast tempo of change. The authors outline the benefits of an incremental adaptation to the international higher education system and the need to adjust international norms to local conditions, by building off the assets of the country’s Soviet heritage. The benefits of involving Transnational Experience and Experience Networks in the implementation of international norms are also reviewed.

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University rankings and the scientification of social sciences and humanities

Cited by 16 publications

References 37 publications

Ranking Regimes and the Production of Knowledge in Academia: (Re)shaping Faculty Work?

Ranking Regimes and the Production of Knowledge in Academia: (Re)shaping Faculty Work?

Tenure and academic deadwood

Implementation of International Norms in Russia: The Case of Higher Education

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