International students’ and employers’ use of rankings: a cross-national analysis

Souto-Otero, Manuel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8768-514X and Enders, Jurgen 2017. International students’ and employers’ use of rankings: a cross-national analysis. Studies in Higher Education 42 (4) , pp. 783-810. 10.1080/03075079.2015.1074672

Preview

PDF - Accepted Post-Print Version Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

The article examines, primarily based on large-scale survey data, the functionalist proposition that HE customers, students and employers, demand rankings to be able to adopt informed decisions on where to study and who to recruit respectively. This is contrasted to a Weberian ‘conflict’ perspective on rankings in which positional competition is key. The article concludes that rankings are better understood as instruments in positional competition for a minority of global players. They are a crucial source of information only for particular groups of international students and employers. The empirical analysis further suggests that the state of economic development, cultural aspects and the availability of top-ranked institutions in the home HE system are important factors in explaining differences in the importance of rankings across countries. We conclude by arguing that national governments and HE institutions should re-visit the assumption of a wide-spread importance of rankings for students and employers.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HA Statistics H Social Sciences > HM Sociology L Education > L Education (General)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Higher education, higher education policy, globalisation, higher education rankings
Additional Information:	PDF uploaded in accordance with publisher's policies at http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/issn/0307-5079/ (accessed 25.9.15).
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
ISSN:	0307-5079
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Date of Acceptance:	6 July 2015
Last Modified:	03 Dec 2024 14:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/76970

Citation Data

Cited 20 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item