Commensuration of the globalised higher education sector: how university rankings act as a credential for world-class status in China

ABSTRACT

The concept of the world-class university has proliferated throughout the world, yet there is no universal consensus on how to define these elite institutions. Without a unified definition, rankings have become a direct proxy for sense-making in the sector and a commensurate indicator that decision-makers have used to understand the world-class concept. Through interviews with 48 informants from the Chinese higher education sector, I explore how institutions in China conceptualise world-class status through university rankings. First, I show that the sector in China has intently focused on league table positioning, with the top-100 as a popular cut-off point for guaranteed world-class status. Next, I explore which global rankings have been the most influential – QS, THE, ARWU, and US News. Finally, I discuss how actors living in this competitive higher education environment have altered research agendas and institutional partnerships to align with global ranking metrics.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• China
• internationalisation
• university rankings
• world-class university

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Supplementary material

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Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Hanban’s Confucius China Studies Program Fellowship.