Berkeley study: major university rankings may be biased
Global university rankings may be distorted by the business activities of the ranker, including selling consulting, analytics and other services to universities, according to a new study from the University of California (UC), Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education.
The results suggest that Russian universities frequently using services provided by QS – a major ranking company – improved their positions in the QS World University Rankings over time, regardless of improvements in their institutional quality.
According to UC Berkeley, the study provides the first-ever empirical evidence of how business relationships between rankers and universities affect rankings.