Hazelkorn, E. Rankings and the Reshaping of Higher Education – The Battle for World-class Excellence. Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire, 2011. ISBN: 978-0-23-024324-8. Pages: 272.

Rankings are often equated with “quality” even though many rankings exercises, especially global university rankings, apply inherently unreliable proxy measurements as “indicators of excellence”. Regardless of the criticisms of the design and methodology of global university rankings, both skeptics and advocates believe that “rankings are here to stay”. Therefore, while accepting rankings as a global phenomenon, it becomes essential to understand how rankings work and what their impact is on university management and policymaking, apart from student choice and recruitment.  To this end, Hazelkorn’s new book is the first comprehensive study of rankings from a global perspective based on the findings of original international surveys and interviews with universities and stakeholders. The author currently heads the Higher Education Policy Research Unit of the Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland and is a Consultant to the OECD Programme on Institutional Management of Higher Education (IMHE).

Palgrave MacMillan

Bio of Ellen Hazelkorn