Some wisdom has dawned on some Universities not to cooperate for rankings. Universities can never be made useful if they are to be driven by ranks rather than innovation, strategy, approach and how the faculty really drive institutions.
Instead in my considered opinion, I strongly feel that the metrics of education needs to be refined through internal monitoring, scale, ability to engage, ability to collaborate, ability to network, ability to look at alternative ways of providing education and not by rankings, quantitative numbers, publications.
By staying in systems that trigger ranks, you create a false environment and a false sense of competition which is essentially governing by numbers alone. That is the lowest form of innovation which any rational mind will agree with.
Arm-chair researchers have been tremendously growing over the years, rather than looking at the human collective as a whole. We have moved away from academic wisdom and we have mechanized our approach to understanding talent.
You don’t define talent or estimate progress by looking at indexations, publications, and research alone. Rather talent and progress is to be interpretated by sincerely looking at life changing goals.
I am not suggesting this, because I don’t have research papers or because I find this convenient. In all likelihood, it would not matter much for me. I have published in the who’s who of world publications, I have written books, I have published columns in the media, so I fairly know what I am looking at. Infact very few people my age can boast and compare the metrics I have achieved in full measure with my time, circumstance and age.
But with an ever-increasing zeal to make our world better, I feel ranking of universities is toxic, its stupid and not a way to encourage well-meaning academia around the world. Teaching is an art, which for me is a forever learning, but so many academicians around the world have so much potential and talent which can be harnessed to change the world.
Disclaimer: Views expressed are in personal capacity only