Saturday, June 29, 2013

OU (UK) in THES top 100 under 50 Unis

Rankings are pervasive. Because the criteria are never readily apparent, and unlikely to be systemic, rankings always need to be treated with caution.  That said it is good to have some differentiation in the rankings system as with the global top 100 under 50 year old universities. From my perspective ranking still has a long way to go to capture the essence of what a university's purpose is - the transformation of learners and society in line with an espoused social mission.  This makes the traditional ranking system, which puts Oxbridge etc at the top, very dubious from a policy perspective.  I feel sure the current top crop would come much further down the list if the value they added via transformation was the key measure. For this reason I am delighted the OU features in top 100 (just) in the new rankings.

The OU ranks 99 in the 100 global under 50 years old universities 2013 published by the Times Higher Education (THE).  The Times Higher Education 100 Under 50 is a ranking of the top 100 global universities under 50 years old.  

It provides a glimpse into the future, showcasing not those institutions with centuries of history, but the rising stars which show great potential.  The ranking was described by THE editor, Phil Baty as “the next generation of world class universities”. 

The latest edition of University World News contains a number of reports on ranking, incuding one from a 2011 UNESCO sponsored conference

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