- Курбатов, Сергій (orcid.org/0000-0002-8929-7562) (2012) University rankings and the problem of competitiveness of national universities of Post-Soviet countries in global educational space: the case of Ukraine Evaluation in Higher Education, 2 (6). pp. 59-75. ISSN 1997-2334
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Abstract
University rankings during last decade became extremely popular and “fashionable” topic for general discussions and also for academic researches. As Ellen Hazelkorn mentioned in her recently published book, “There is a growing obsession with university rankings around the world. What started as an academic exercise in the early 20th century in the US became a commercial ‘information’ service for students in the 1980s and the progenitor of a ‘reputation race’ with geo-political implications today”[1]. At the same time there is strong critique of the idea of ranking and the existing methodology of evaluation of the quality of university performance. “Many of institutional leaders set rankings as their benchmark in their vision or master plan for the university. Nevertheless, academics are quite skeptical of rankings because they believe that they mislead higher education institutions as well as have enormous methodological limitations”(Jung Cheol Shin, Robert Toutkoushian, Ulrich Teichler, 2011[2] ). Our idea is to look at ranking as a certain innovative technology, which enforce dramatic changes of university education in the context of globalization and increase the level of its competitiveness. The creation of global educational space, started in the last decades of the 20th century, provoked numerous challenges for national universities as the centre of producing of the certain type of cultural identity (Bill Readings, 1996[3]). In situation of these changes, rankings become a kind of condensed guidelines for university managers how to reform the university in context of creation of World-Class University in the framework of main tendencies of academic development of our time. Moreover, we think the process of ranking is relevant to contemporary reality, in which the factor of adequate representation in the informational sphere is becoming more and more important. The history of Ukrainian University ranking starts in 2000, when the project "Sophia Kyivska"[5] was established by the International Academy of Personal Management, the Institute of Higher Education of Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Institute of Social Researches and other academic institutions. It was based mostly on two types of survey: among experts in academic area and among potential students. Thus, this ranking evaluates mostly the level of attractiveness of University among different audiences. Two rankings of Ukrainian Universities, based mostly on internationally recognized standards and approaches, are "TOP 200 Ukraine"[6], which was developed by the Department of UNESCO - "High Technical Education, system analyses and informatics" of National University "KPI" and the Ukrainian weekly "Mirror of the Week"(2007), and "Compass"[7], which is run and financed by the SCM Group and Foundation "Development of Ukraine"(2008). This work has received considerable public attention and numerous publications in mass media. We argue that this process needs to be continued and improved through active international cooperation and the implementation of internationally recognized principles, like the Berlin Principles (Ying Cheng and Nian Cai Liu, 2008[9]). To be sure, international rankings give us a simplified picture of a World Class University. But without this simple picture it is impossible to identify the main dimensions for reforming the system of higher education, though it is a simple matter to imitate such reforms. The "language" of international ranking is now a kind of academic Esperanto, which gives to each University an opportunity to be a part of the modern globalized University system and the certain understanding how to be competitive in the framework of this system – in our presentation we would analyze this process based on Ukrainian experience and the relevant data.
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