Industrialisation of university rankings: An analysis of university rankers' social media accounts

This seminar will consider how the rankings organisations and ranking editors interact with a variety of audiences through an analysis of their social media accounts.

The analysis covers close to 13,000 social media entries from the Twitter account the three ‘best-known’ international ranking organisations:

• THE
• QS and,
• Shanghai ARWU.

There is particular attention to the case of the Times Higher Education. They contribute the largest proportion of entries in the dataset as an archetype of a ranking and educational consulting organisation.

The analysis is based on an earlier framework that aims to characterise rankers’ ‘weak expertise’. It will also show how university rankers claim a demand for their services and how they respond to their critics.

The seminar contributes to the discussion around the increasing ‘industrialisation’ of university rankings and the development of ranking associated services including:

• conferences
• summits
• data consulting and,
• brand management services.

The variety of these services highlights the increasing number, the differentiation of ranking audiences and the ways in which university rankers cultivate target markets.

Links:

• Department of Education, Practice and Society
• Centre for Global Higher Education