University rankings are imbued with great significance by university staff and leadership teams and the outcomes of their ranking systems can have significant material consequences. Drawing on a curious example from their own institution, Jelena Brankovic argues that taking rankings as proxies for quality or performance in a linear-causal fashion is a fundamentally ill-conceived way of understanding the value of a university, in particular, when publicly embraced by none other than scholars themselves.

Earlier this month, QS published its annual World University Rankings by Subject, spurring excitement across academic social media. “Thrilled to be part of the world’s No. 1,” said a faculty member. “Proud alumna and staff member,” wrote another. “So proud to be part of the team. Well done everyone”… And so on. You get the picture.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with people liking their job and enjoying working in a stimulating environment. There is, however, something unsettling about scholars taking things like a ranking produced by QS, Shanghai, or whichever organization, as confirmation, or evidence, of how good—or bad for that matter—they are having it as compared to everyone else.

One may wonder, do scholars respond to rankings in this way because they are just carried away in the moment? Or because they take rankings seriously? Or is it, perhaps, something else?

To be clear from the start, my intention here is not to criticise rankings. At least not in the way this is usually done. In this sense, this is not a story about rankings’ flawed methodologies or their adverse effects, about how some rankings are produced for making profit, or about how opaque or poorly governed they are. None of that matters here.

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Les discours et polemiques racistes, d’exclusion, les actes de harcelement mediatico-politiques quotidiens envers les musulmans, immigres et minorites ne sont plus admis et les masses comprennent que ces politiques de stigmatisation sont volontaires et premeditees!

La Republique (l’oligarchie au pouvoir) ne combat pas les radicaux ou extremistes puisqu elle est objectivement le protecteur des regimes retrogrades comme l’arabie saoudite qui ont arme a la demande de l’occident ideologiquement et financierement des groupes radicaux pour servir l’agenda atlanto sioniste ! Le but etait de fomenter un conflit artificiel Sunite-shiite au profit d’Israel et son agenda messianique d expansion!

Le racisme d’etat en France est une realite qu’il n’est plus possible de masquer ou justifier! L’afrique aussi bien que les minorites opprimees en France se mobilisent et en prennent conscience! Le mouvement decolonial connait une croissance partout car il deconstruit le discours officiel de domination maintenu de force pour invisibiliser ces populations, leurs aspirations et leur dignite!

The Palestinian prisoner, Mansour al-Shahatit (35 years), was released from a town in the Hebron governorate after 17 years in a solitary prison. Mansour did not recognize his mother and his family due to the mental illness he developed in the zionist prisons and after being subject to torture! This is why every single honest human being rejects zionism and it’s oppression! Colonialism and the messianic agenda of zionism has no future

الأسير منصور الشحاتيت من مدينة دورا جنوب الخليل. خرج اليوم من سجون الاحتلال الإسرائيلي بعد 17 عامًا – الجدير بالذكر أنه لم يتمكن من التعرف على والدته وإخوته، بسبب فقدانه للذاكرة جرّاء التعذيب الوحشيّ الذي تعرض له، في زنازين العزل الإنفرادي « الإسرائيلية »

YB

Here is another example in the same week! A 13-year-old child was shot in his eye with a rubber-coated metal bullet y an Israeli sniper in Bab Al Zawiyeh in occupied Hebron on Friday. The child lost his eye. Local sources said Izziddin Al Batsh was shot in the eye with a rubber-coated metal bullet. He was taken to Hebron Public hospital immediately. The video is clear, the child didn’t show any threat on the soldiers. He was inside a vegetable shop.

German psychologist Hans-Ulrich Wittchen is accused of fabricating data in a survey of psychiatry clinics. MITTENZWEI KARL/PICTURE-ALLIANCE/BERLINER ZEITUNG

Top German psychologist fabricated data, investigation finds

By Hristio Boytchev Apr. 8, 2021 , 4:00 AM

Hans-Ulrich Wittchen, one of Germany’s top psychologists and an expert in treating anxiety and phobias, is not shy about promoting himself. His email signature says he is a “highly cited researcher,” and with good reason. He has almost 1000 articles to his name, according to the Web of Science, and has racked up nearly 70,000 citations. He is an editor of Germany’s diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders—the bible of clinical psychology—and until 2017, he led a psychology research institute at the Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden).

Yet his reputation is under fire after an investigation into one of his studies found evidence of manipulation—and elaborate efforts to cover up the misdeed. The investigation report, turned over to TU Dresden in February and obtained by Science, also shows Wittchen intimidated whistleblowers and pressured senior TU Dresden staff. The Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), a public health organization, is suing the company it paid to do the study. And the Dresden public prosecutor’s office is now investigating criminal charges related to the study.

Read more from the source here: Science magazine