A holistic approach to university ranking including the role of the administration

DESPITE the sporadic hue and cry on the negative impact, reliance on university rankings are increasing. The most talked about concern is the pandemic of scientific misconduct largely due to imposed performance indicators on academicians and researchers (will be referred to as academics) which primarily determines the ranking of their universities.

Apparently, the biggest responsibility to move a university's ranking upwards is bestowed upon academics. Their research and publication records count the bulk of the university's ranking.

A higher ranking of a university means a higher demand for the university by potential students. Therefore, indirectly or directly, performance and reputation of academics remain at the core of the survival and progress of a university.

Philosophically, a university exists because lecturers (or academics) exist. On the other hand, lecturers exist because students exist. Their existence in a university is facilitated by a third group of individuals - administrative personnel.

Nevertheless, the existence of a university in the ranking world is measured mostly by the performance and reputation of academics - their qualifications, ability of teaching as well as research and publication. For example, in QS ranking academic reputations and citations per faculty consists of 50 per cent of the weightage of all indicators. In addition, the international faculty ratio comprises 5 per cent of the total weightage.

Similarly the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings mostly depend on the performance indicators of the academics, that includes their: teaching reputation (15 per cent); research reputation, income and productivity (29 per cent); and research quality (30 per cent).

Needless to say, research as well as the teaching and learning performance of academics largely depend on resources, infrastructures, and facilities provided by the university. However, their research and publication output mostly depend on their ability to secure and execute research grants.

Therefore, both the teaching and research performance of the academics at a university could be affected by a number of other factors that are directly related with the university administrative performance.

This may include but is not limited to how efficient teaching and learning facilities or research facilities are provided, how efficiently procurements are settled, and how an appointment or a promotion application of a relevant staff such as research assistant is facilitated and settled. Furthermore, the efficiency of the relevant authorities in response to a need for repair of a teaching and research facility or other infrastructures also affects the reputation of the university.

Again, the number of international students (5 per cent in QS ranking and 2.5 per cent in THE ranking) carries a score for global university ranking. Addressing their needs for admission, immigration, and living in a foreign country are yet another critical aspect to be addressed by the university administrative personnel.

Needless to say, these factors - which are mostly the responsibility of the administrative personnel - are not in the hands of academics per se.

While the performance of a university is primarily reflected by the teaching, research, and publication impact of the academics, their performance needs solid and efficient administrative support. Hence, the performance of administrative personnel in terms of resources and infrastructure development, human resource management, finance, and student affairs plays a crucial role in offering an optimum environment for the academics and students.

After all, university ranking is a shared responsibility, and it is not the sole responsibility of academics. Nevertheless, while the performance of the academics are counted for ranking - the performance of administrative personnel remains behind the curtain. That leaves room for their performance either not appreciated nor improved in case of a compromised administrative support system.

It is most unlikely that any university that performs well in the global university ranking has an efficient and effective administrative support for academics and students to excel in research and teaching. Albeit that claim could be substantiated if the performance of administrative support in areas related to research, teaching, and student affairs is also quantified and added to the ranking score.

The inclusion of administrative performance indicators might help not only to evaluate the scope of improving good governance but also would offer a holistic evaluation of a university for a global or regional university ranking.

Currently, none of the existing global rankings includes an indicator to evaluate the administrative performance. Perhaps the annual practice for the MyRA ranking could include performance indicators of good governance from the administrative perspective - thus showing the world a view of holistic university ranking.

Professor Dr Mohammad Tariqur Rahman Deputy Executive Director International Institute of Public Policy & Management (INPUMA) Universiti Malaya. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of Sinar Daily.