Ranking and the Globalization of Higher Education

Abstract

The academic world has experienced a number of profound changes over the past two decades, making the experiences of teaching and learning at most postsecondary institutions significantly different now than in the period prior to the 1990s. Three major changes of particular importance have been (i) the enormous expansion of higher education (HE), especially in terms of student numbers; (ii) the growing impact of ‘academic capitalism’ and the ‘audit culture’; and (iii) the recent focus/ obsession with university ranking and branding. The paper will examine aspects of this third theme.