From Chinese Press

Universities and their rankings

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-01 08:15

The latest ranking of China's universities has been published. After holding the top position for 14 years, Tsinghua University has slid to third place. Zhejiang University and Peking University hold the top two positions. But the university ranking system has once again sparked a heated public debate and turned the spotlight on government guidelines, says an article on Xinhuanet. Excerpts:

People have been questioning the authenticity of the university ranking system for some time now. And uncertainty remains over what types of universities qualify to be rated as the country's top institutions.

People want to know what criteria are used to rank the institutions, and the authorities are obliged to meet their not so-difficult demand.

In previous rankings, various indices - such as the influence of a university, its teaching standards, its faculties' achievements and its research level and quality - were taken into consideration.

The rankings today, however, are determined by the attention a particular university draws and even the number of hits it generates on Internet search engines. Many of the indices are thus subjective when they should be absolutely objective.

The rating procedure, which lacks proper supervision, is problematic too. Besides, rankings mean little or nothing to renowned universities that have enjoyed a favorable reputation for long.

So when universities use the rankings to promote themselves, many people are compelled to think that the institutions meddle in the procedure to influence the results.

There indeed is a need for ranking the country's top universities. But there is also the need to answer people's question on what indices are used for the rankings. And the answers to those questions have to come from the government.

(China Daily 06/01/2011 page9)