Assessing the legitimacy of HEIs’ contributions to society: The perspective of international rankings

Purpose This paper aims to inquire about the types of measurements used by international university rankings and their connection to the higher education institutions' (HEIs) third mission activities, namely, the contribution to society. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a revie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability accounting, management and policy journal (Print) management and policy journal (Print), 2017-01, Vol.8 (2), p.191-215
Main Authors: Urdari, Claudia, Farcas, Teodora Viorica, Tiron-Tudor, Adriana
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accountability
Colleges & universities
Content analysis
Data collection
Decision making
Economics
Education policy
Efficiency
Entrepreneurship
Higher education
Interdisciplinary subjects
International
Legitimacy
Literature reviews
Measures
Performance evaluation
Performance management
Principal components analysis
Public sector
Ratings & rankings
School environment
Society
Studies
Teaching
Transparency
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Description
Summary:Purpose This paper aims to inquire about the types of measurements used by international university rankings and their connection to the higher education institutions' (HEIs) third mission activities, namely, the contribution to society. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a review of literature and content analysis of nine international rankings. Findings This empirical study corroborates that rankings focus on teaching and research activities but rarely measure the HEIs' connection to practice. Originality/value As the measurements used by international university rankings are claimed to have a huge impact on the structuring of the academic environment, this paper shows that international rankings fail to measure the HEIs' success in developing third mission activities.
ISSN:2040-8021
2040-803X
DOI:10.1108/SAMPJ-12-2015-0108