Editorial: Rankings? What rankings?

By Ryan Pike

In the ever-competitive world of post-secondary education, everyone vies for whatever edge they can get. Students forego sleep to complete assignments and study with the aim of being seen as the best in order to win scholarships or acceptance into honours or graduate programs. In much the same way, the University of Calgary competes in an ongoing war of perception. For universities, rankings are big business — they tell the general public how well institutions are being run and students are being taught. Given the stakes, consistency is key.

The University of Calgary, it seems, hates rankings. Administration has, in the past, all but said as much, refusing to cooperate with the Maclean’s rankings in 2006 along with 20 other schools after consistently finishing outside of the top 10. Maclean’s continued with the rankings anyway using third-party information and when the U of C rose to seventh position last year, administration didn’t jump back on the bandwagon. The U of C similarly hasn’t made a big deal about shooting up the Times Higher Education rankings. Since appearing deep down in the rankings in 2005 — boasting an abysmal 282nd position — the school has inched upwards, reaching 149th spot in this year’s edition. The U of C’s Achilles’ heel has been consistency.

Despite rapidly improving stature in many world rankings, the U of C faces a conundrum — they haven’t improved much relative to other Canadian schools. To the average student, the U of C isn’t competing with schools in Amsterdam or Singapore. Given that most Canadian students can’t afford the high international tuition rates outside of the country, the U of C is in hot competition with other Canadian schools to attract the best students. In that sense, consistency can either make or break a school’s reputation.

And the U of C is really bad at consistency. The university ranked 78th in the world and fifth in Canada in the Webometrics ranking, measuring the “web performance” of schools. Tenuous definitions aside, the Webometrics ranking is not high profile. The rankings that are high profile, though, return consistently mediocre U of C performances: ninth among Canadian schools on the Times rankings, sixth on the SMImago research rankings, eighth in Canada on the Research Infosource endowment rankings and seventh on the Maclean’s rankings. What this kind of consistency says to prospective students is this: the handful of schools that consistently rank ahead of the U of C are probably better. Maybe you should go to the University of Toronto, University of British Columbia or, gasp, University of Alberta instead of here.

That said, the U of C is missing out on a huge opportunity by ignoring their placement in these rankings. Instead of spinning this the way their public relations people spin everything else — multiple groundbreakings for a library is apparently standard procedure — the U of C is allowing the numbers to be spun by everyone but them. As such, they’re losing the impact rankings have on student recruitment. The best students will still probably gravitate towards the best schools, but by promoting the U of C as the seventh or eighth best in the country and a school that’s leapt forward in international rankings over the past half-decade, prospective students may see this university as a growing force rather than as an academic middleweight.

The U of C is striving to be seen as a world-class university, making changes both cosmetic and not — faculty amalgamation, new buildings and the construction of a quad — to appear like they’re one. To truly be like the big boys, though, the U of C has got to play the rankings game like they do. That means along with shiny new buildings, faculties and quadrangles, they’ve got to figure out a way to utilize their world and Canadian rankings in a positive light. Otherwise, administration will find themselves running “that crappy school south of the U of A.”

23 comments

  1. For hottest information you have to go to see world-wide-web
    and on internet I found this website as a finest web site for newest updates.

  2. I do consider all the ideas you have presented to your post.
    They’re really convincing and can certainly work. Still, the posts are very short for
    novices. Could you please extend them a bit from next time?
    Thank you for the post.

  3. Valuable info. Lucky me I found your website accidentally, and I
    am stunned why this coincidence didn’t took place in advance!

    I bookmarked it.

  4. Thanks for any other informative blog. The place else may just I am getting
    that kind of info written in such a perfect way? I’ve a project that I’m just now operating on,
    and I have been at the glance out for such info.

  5. Hello my family member! I want to say that this post is amazing, nice written and include almost all significant
    infos. I’d like to see more posts like this .

  6. you’re in point of fact a excellent webmaster. The site loading velocity is amazing.

    It kind of feels that you are doing any unique trick.
    Also, The contents are masterpiece. you’ve performed a great task on this matter!

  7. It’s in fact very complicated in this full of activity life to listen news on Television, thus I only use world wide web for that
    purpose, and obtain the hottest information.

  8. Howdy would you mind letting me know which web host you’re using?

    I’ve loaded your blog in 3 completely different browsers and I must say this blog loads a
    lot faster then most. Can you recommend a good hosting provider at a honest price?
    Thank you, I appreciate it!

  9. Hello would you mind letting me know which webhost you’re workingwith? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 completely different browsers and I must say this blog loads a lotfaster then most. Can you suggest a good web hosting provider at a reasonableprice? Cheers, I appreciate it!

  10. My brother suggested I might like this web site.He was totally right. This publish actually made my day.You can not consider simply how a lot time I had spent for this info!Thank you!

  11. After looking over a number of the blog posts on your web site, I
    honestly appreciate your way of writing a blog. I saved as a favorite it to my
    bookmark webpage list and will be checking back soon. Take a look at my web site too and
    tell me how you feel.

  12. I all the time used to study article in news papers but nowas I am a user of internet therefore from now I am using net for articles,thanks to web.

  13. Oh my goodness! Amazing article dude! Thanks, However I amgoing through troubles with your RSS. I don’t know why I cannot join it.Is there anyone else getting identical RSS issues?Anyone that knows the solution will you kindly respond?Thanks!!

  14. I know this site offers quality dependent content and other material,
    is there any other site which provides these information in quality?

  15. I am extremely impressed with your writing skills as well as with the layout on your weblog.Is this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself?Anyway keep up the nice quality writing, it’s rareto see a nice blog like this one these days.

  16. If some one wants expert view concerning blogging and site-building after
    that i suggest him/her to visit this website, Keep up the nice
    work.

  17. Wonderful work! This is the type of info that are supposed to be shared around the net.Shame on the seek engines for no longer positioning this put up upper!Come on over and consult with my web site . Thanks =)

  18. excellent publish, very informative. I’m wondering whythe other experts of this sector do not realize this.You should continue your writing. I am sure, you have a huge readers’ base already!

Leave a comment