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industry & research be so much harder to measure and sell as a benchmarking service , but so much more valuable to pursue and achieve .
The adages of you “ inspect what you expect ” and “ what gets measured , gets managed ” have so many implications when external benchmarked rankings , largely of outdated research outcomes , dominate our assessments of universities .
If your university has a mission and purpose other than to be historically good at research , why not opt out of them and choose another way to measure and market yourself .
Think about how it might change so much of what gets valued , done and promoted in your institution .
What would it mean for staff working in universities , if they could pursue what they believed in and valued , rather than what a ranking company values ?
This plays out in many ways in university culture . Leaders and strategies appear to say just about everything is important .
But for many , the outcomes that lead to improvements in rankings remain the thing that gets valued more than most , whether it be in the Vice Chancellor ’ s regular all staff email , or what most people perceive to be the reasons for academic promotion decisions .
If we really do mean it when we say we value access , opportunity , inclusion , industry engagement , and collaboration , then why don ’ t we reflect that in actions rather than only words . It certainly does give for dissonance and mixed messages in cultural symbols and how people behave .
Imagine a university where the Vice Chancellor says collaboration internally and with other universities in the state is the priority , and we value teamwork .
Then imagine a local university partner approaches an aspiring professor in the Engineering School with a problem . The aspiring professor has been told that
Rankings are metrics of quality that mean little for quality of the student experience .
teamwork , collaboration and serving industry is the priority .
Rankings are metrics of quality that mean little for quality of the student experience . The correlation between university rankings and measures of student experience are spurious at best and in inverse relationship at worst .
The only reason students use rankings to choose between universities is that they have no other guide to work with . That may well be our fault .
Imagine what our Australian Universities Accord could do to encourage this in Australia , in encouraging more diverse and differentiated universities . ■
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The laTesT news and resources for professionals in The higher educaTion indusTry
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