University Rankings: Important?

With so many people going to University in the 21st century and more and more students gaining higher grades each year, what is the importance of the University that you attend? Traditionally, students gaining higher grades would attend higher ranked institutions than those who didn't do as well, and studied at polytechnics. BUT this is no longer the case. I know people who got A's at A Level but are studying at Universities ranked in the 90's/100's - simply because of the course/personal preference. Is it fair to look down at someone for studying at one of these universities, especially when it IS possible that they achieved higher grades than somebody at a top 10/20 University. What I'm getting at is that reputation and ranking cannot be as important as they used to be. The variety and choice for students is such that nowadays A grade students attend any University and in reality, where you go isn't as important as it might once have been. Anyone agree?

1.     In my experience, rankings mean pretty much nothing. The first time I applied for uni, I literally went for the top 6. Now I'm at a lower ranked university, and happier than ever.

2.     It's a ranking - based on research, entry standards etc. which can be used as guide.

3.     It's more important than ever, surely? Nowadays just having a degree isn't enough to get you a good job like it once was and the more respected the institution your degree is from the more advantage you have in the job market. Assuming most other things are roughly the same between candidates, obviously.

4.     People think differently about different universities. In ten years time the University of Jersey might be above Oxford and Cambridge. If you happened to go to this non-existent uni then your chances of getting a job will have increased. I don't think it matters what uni you go to, too much.

5.     In my opinion, people with this view have little experience of employment after graduation. Employers are more aware than ever of the increasing rise of University students. Surely to gain a 1st from a less "respected" University is more advantageous than a 2:2 from a top 10 one? I think it is more about the individual than their choice of institution to study at?

6.     I really would disagree with this, everyone i know with higher grades are applying to higher institutions, there is an exact correlation. There are odd anomalies with specific preferences and good departments at lesser respected universities, but for the vast majority the same as always still holds true. Ranking is as important as ever with the competitive nature of the job market, although that ofcourse, depends on the employer and the degree class you achieve, but again, there will always be an inherent bias towards 'top' institutions, justified or not.

7.     Agreed, the top, top jobs in fields like media and business always (with rare exceptions) go those with a degree from a top uni or someone with a lot of connections.That's not to say that you can't succeed if you go to a mid-low ranged uni. If you get a first in any degree, no matter what uni you're at, it shows the employer that you know what you are talking about and understand things, so, even if you're applying for a job that has nothing to do with your degree, you'll have a good chance of getting that. And anyway, by the time people that are discussing this thread come out of uni, everything could have changed, the uni they are at may be a top 20 ranked uni and vice versa.

8.     Companies don't have the time to go around every single university and evaluate just how good it is for them to judge themselves. As long as employers in this country use it as an indication to assess potential employees I would say it does matter. There is a link between the top ranked unis having the better graduate prospects, they're more favoured particularly in some really competitive careers.

9.     As far as university rankings go, no they are not important in making your choice. However it is often well known which universities have a good/bad reputation for certain subjects...and it is likely that you are very interested in a subject you will find yourself more suited to one of these institutions...never looked at a ranking table but I know which universities have a good reputation for maths for example. There are also bands that make themselves apparent where universities are similar in the quality of course and level of offer...but just because a university has a good reputation doesn't mean any given student is going to enjoy it...and theyy're certainly going to suffer academically as well as socially if they're somewhere that isn't right for them

10.

a) The best candidates are still found at the best universities, the correlation remains - just because there are still universally held highly regarded students at lesser universities does not disrupt this correlation in any sense. But obviously an employer will, to some degree, most likely in a tacit procedure, take the specific degree and it's relevant difficulty and nature into account. I mean, they do have common sense, and i imagine bring such things into the context of their achievement.

  b) Well, lets take your specific case, media studies, those who take media studies have a very specific job in mind, i'd imagine the job sector would become acclimatised to departmental qualities and would know the rough layout of the standard of them, i'd imagine the quality of department would still make a difference.

On the wider scale though, in the general job market, those who attended a less prestigous university will likely see the disadvantages of such. And it's not a matter of 'should', unfortunately it's just how it is.

Ceteris paribus, someone who attend a distinctly higher regarded university than another individual, will have an advantage most certainly.

This article pulls together the available evidence on the impact of university rankings in three student-related areas: access to higher education, choice of school, and opportunities after graduation. While most of the data pertain to commercially-produced rankings in the US and the UK, there are useful lessons for other countries.

Impact on student access to higher education

Studies show that university rankings can threaten higher education access for disadvantaged students by creating incentives for schools to recruit students who will be 'assets' in terms of maintaining or enhancing their position in the rankings.

This dynamic appears related to the student-selectivity indicators used in some university rankings, such as test scores for entering students and the percentage of applicants that a school accepts. In order to improve their performance on these measures, schools engage in various strategic activities, including implementing early-decision programs (students receive an early admissions decision from their first-choice school), offering larger amounts of merit aid (e.g. scholarships), and investing heavily in infrastructure such as sports facilities and upmarket dorms.

While these strategies can help schools compete more effectively for academically high-achieving students, they tend to have a negative impact on access for low-income students and other underrepresented groups, particularly to the more selective schools. (This is because these students are less likely to apply through early-decision programs or to earn the top scores on standardized tests that would qualify them for scholarships).

Impact on student choice of school

Ironically, while higher education institutions are becoming increasingly obsessed with rankings, evidence from the US and Europe suggests that rankings do not play a large role in most students choice of a university or graduate program. For example, of the 221,897 undergraduate students who responded to one survey, 11% saw university rankings as a very important factor in their choice of school while 60% found them not at all important. Students who found university rankings to be very important were more likely to be high-achieving, from high-income families, and from families with college-educated parents. Low-income and first-generation (i.e., children of parents with no higher education experience) college students were least likely to view rankings as important.

Impact on student opportunities after graduation

What about the effects on student opportunities after graduation? Studies in several countries have found a relationship between the perceived status of the degree-granting institution (a characteristic that relates strongly to university rankings) and employment and earnings outcomes for graduates. These studies suggest that the impact is temporary for most students, although there can be a more enduring effect for low-income students and graduates of professional programs.

Only a small amount of research directly examines the effects of rankings on employment and earnings outcomes; these data suggest that rankings may have some impact in these areas, at least for business school graduates. For example, one study found that companies pay higher salaries to graduates of the top-ranked US business schools even when they know that lower-ranked schools offer a better education.

At the same time, rankings appear to have little or no sway on employers who hire graduates in very specialized or newly established program areas that are in high demand. For instance, data from the UK reveal that while graduates of the highest-ranked institutions tend to do best overall in terms of employment prospects, graduates of some of the lower-ranked universities also do well if they have specialized in an area highly regarded for particular professions.

Global university rankings

The last few years have seen a new addition to the rankings scene: so-called 'world' rankings that purport to be lists of the top universities or programs in the world. The best-known examples are the THE Supplement-Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings, and the Academic Ranking of World Universities produced by the Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Early data suggest that these global ranking systems are helping to better inform prospective students in many countries about the available choices, including where they can obtain a high quality education for a reasonable price.

Reservations remain, however, about the potential impact on access given the strong likelihood that such rankings will encourage higher education stratification within and across countries. In fact, some countries are explicitly moving in that direction because they see rankings and stratification as the means to create 'world class' universities and thus meet the challenges of increasing global competition.

Lessons for producers and consumers of rankings

Producers of university rankings should periodically review their methodologies and take note of how their rankings are being perceived and used by various audiences. Since at least some of the adverse impacts of rankings are related to student selectivity indicators, one issue for rankers is whether to replace measures that reward schools for recruiting already academically high-achieving students with those that recognize schools for their success in educating students.

It is also important for higher education institutions to reflect on their use of ranking information. This involves considering whether rankings may be unduly influencing priorities and processes in certain aspects of institutional life, including admission decisions. In addition, it is important for students to recognize that rankings reflect only one aspect of an institution's profile and are not necessarily predictive of the quality of the education that they will receive, or of the opportunities that will be available to them after graduation.

Both producers and consumers may benefit from consulting The Berlin Principles on Ranking of Higher Education Institutions. These principles, which offer standards of quality and good practice in the development and use of rankings, are available at http://www.ihep.org/.

Definitions

Access: policies and procedures put in place by universities, or programs within those institutions, that directly impact on the entry of traditionally under-represented student groups

Choice: factors that affect a student's decision about which school to attend

Opportunity: employment and earnings outcomes for graduates and how they are influenced by the institution attended. Ranking: a list of institutions (e.g., universities) or programs (e.g., MBA, doctoral) organized according to each school's relative performance on some measure(s) of quality.

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