On why industry-based metrics of academic quality need to be regulated or done away with.
As my feed is filled with academic brags about rankings - based on fuzzy metrics, conducted by people who are not experts on education, and not trained in assessment - I thought it might be helpful for folks to review this article on Columbia University's ranking scandal.
If the allegedly best schools in the world, are selling their souls for rankings, what does this mean for the rest of us?
As schools promote poets & quants award winners, you can't help but wonder what kind of effort went into secure rankings? I know of at least one person that hired a PR firm to secure their spot. I know of other faculty who ask their students for nominations - saying it helps their degree's value.
When will this mad race towards nothing? end?
This "near-academic" industry powered by the need to sell more magazines, grab more eyeballs, and the false promise of attracting better students is distorting higher education & needs to be regulated or done away with.
It's a cancer that makes the entire academy smaller.
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