Global rankings should include universities’ societal engagement

Academic global league tables should be recalibrated to include a university’s community engagement say sector leaders.

Teaching students to be involved in their community should be among the measures of university excellence says a new report.

Commitment to the public good by universities and their value to society should be measured as a counterbalance to global rankings systems which heavily influence reputation, especially among international students, says a report from the University of Melbourne, King’s College London and the University of Chicago.

Metrics used by rankings such as Times Higher Education (THE), QS and ARWU are “an incomplete measure of the performance of a university”, argues the report Advancing University Engagement: University engagement and global league tables.

“Universities need to demonstrate their value to society, including the return on investment of public funds,” it said. The perception in some media, politics and public circles of being “ivory towers” is a “corrosive narrative” that should be counteracted.

One of its authors, University of Melbourne vice-president, strategy and culture, Julie Wells, said trust in public institutions was “probably at an all time low for a wide range of reasons”.

“There is a rebuilding effort in terms of reminding people what the universities are here to do,” Dr Wells said.

“Taking a more rigorous approach to thinking about the value we add through academic work and through engagement is an important part of strengthening that social contract.”

Suggested indicators are universities’ commitment to engagement at the leadership level and in strategy, community opinion (via surveys), student access (support for under-represented groups), volunteering by staff and students, research reach outside academic journals, the proportion of curriculum dedicated to engagement learning and the proportion of students in those courses, socially responsible purchasing and carbon footprint.

Since the project began in 2017, the group has conducted surveys, sort expert opinion and conducted three pilot studies with 20 universities, including the University of Technology, Sydney, the University of Sydney and UNSW.

In that time THE has introduced impact rankings, but the consortium argues the need for “a simpler set of metrics that can be incorporated into global league tables rather than used for a stand-alone ranking system”.

When the indicators were applied to the global league tables, a heavy weighting was required before rankings were affected. Other challenges were difficulty in collecting data for some indicators, and that for some, activity was easier to measure than outcome.

The consortium will continue to build and promote the case for engagement as part of global rankings’ methodology and look for a partner, possibly a rankings organisation, to test the framework and data with a wider group of universities. It will also publish accounts from universities about their community contributions during the COVID-19 outbreak.