The classification of universities as a tool for university management
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18537/mskn.01.01.01Keywords:
Higher Education Institution, university ranking, scientific outputAbstract
The recent discussion on university ranking raised quite some commotion among the Ecuadorian academic society. Because Ecuadorian universities do not produce Nobel Prize winners, public and private investment in research are limited, academicians hardly produce articles in recognized scientific journals, among other factors, are responsible that the higher education institutions in Ecuador do not rank in the top of the world university ranking systems. The tendency exists to impeach the value of the world ranking systems by stating that the criteria used are far away from Ecuador‟s reality. True, but the moderate to low ranking might be an incentive for the universities to be more alert and look for ways to improve the institutional performance and in doing so enhancing its competitiveness at national and international level. In this respect, the paper first examines the relation between higher education and development with Ecuador as case study, as to come to an interpretation of the ranking of Ecuador‟s higher educational institutes. In contradiction to the misinterpretation of the ranking systems by local academicians, the article explains briefly the basis of 5 world university ranking systems, illustrates that a given institution ranks different in each of the ranking systems, compares and explains the ranking of 10 Ecuadorian institutions that classify in the Ranking Iberoamericano SIR 2010 and the Ranking Web, to conclude that the Ranking Iberoamericano SIR 2010 and the ranking of the Consejo Nacional de Evaluación y Acreditación (CONEA) yield upon a few exceptions very similar results. Since international rankings put quite some emphasis on research and research output, two avenues are discussed to improve the institutional publication record, i.e. (i) attracting junior staff with doctorate, having experience writing scientific articles, including the creation of an inductive research environment, and (ii) establishing in the institution a scientific journal offering to inexperienced staff the opportunity of acquiring and/or improving writing skills.
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