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Ludo Waltman, Paul Wouters and Nees Jan van Eck have developed 10 principles for the responsible use of university rankings. This blog post coincides with the release of the latest version of their CWTS Leiden university ranking. The principles were inspired by their work on the Leiden Manifesto and bear some similarity. The 10 principles are:
1. A generic concept of university performance should not be used 2. A clear distinction should be made between size-dependent and size-independent indicators of university performance 3. Universities should be defined in a consistent way 4. University rankings should be sufficiently transparent 5. Comparisons between universities should be made keeping in mind the differences between universities 6. Uncertainty in university rankings should be acknowledged 7. An exclusive focus on the ranks of universities in a university ranking should be avoided; the values of the underlying indicators should be taken into account 8. Dimensions of university performance not covered by university rankings should not be overlooked 9. Performance criteria relevant at the university level should not automatically be assumed to have the same relevance at the department of research group level 10. University rankings should be handled cautiously, but they should not be dismissed as being completely useless See the full post here Comments are closed.
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