SINGAPORE – Prospective higher education students should look beyond rankings when it comes to selecting a university. This is because the institution’s standing may not necessarily reflect the learning experience, said a senior British Council representative.
British Council Education director Maddalaine Ansell said although the debate about rankings would not make a blinding difference for students in choosing institutions, university reputation still served as a key indicator for learners and their families.
However, Ansell noted that university rankings often took into account factors such as research achievements and not merely teaching and learning quality.
She also said students and families often look at the university’s branding as there is a strong link between rankings and the institution.
“I suppose where I have an issue with it (rankings) is if you are a student, are you really able to distinguish what you want out of your university education from what the rankings are measuring? Typically rankings pick up research excellence and research reputation,” she told reporters on the sidelines of the Going Global Asia Pacific 2022 conference in Marina Bay Sands here last week.
“But they (students) might actually, if they really thought about it, want really high-quality teaching that can leave them fantastically equipped in order to pursue the profession or the activity that was their motivation for going to university, and that might be entirely different from what the rankings measure.”
With the theme “How to pursue equity in an inequitable world”, the British Council’s flagship Going Global Conference this year took on an Indo-Pacific tilt, in line with the British government’s focus on the region.
Since its inception in 2004, the conference has provided a strategic forum for leaders in international education to share knowledge and build a global network to shape the future of further and higher education across the world, a press release read.
The conference also brings together leaders of tertiary education from more than 80 countries to discuss and debate issues and challenges centred on a yearly theme, with an aim to increase global partnerships and networks between universities, students, practitioners, and higher education leaders.
Previous conferences have been held in the UK, Malaysia, Germany, South Africa, Hong Kong, Dubai, and the US.
The conference also saw the launch of the British Council’s new Alumni UK portal, which aims to be one of the world’s largest global networks for overseas graduates.
In downplaying the importance of rankings, Ansell also said she would often attend conferences on new universities which showcased institutions that have jumped in rankings, and it was found that some were given a “huge chequebook” by their governments to recruit big-name professors and teams.
“And with the objective of rapidly building prestige, it (a university) has succeeded (in rankings) but whether this was actually the most effective way to build a university system that delivers everything that a particular society wants, I am sceptical about (it).”
“But rankings really help with recruitment and students are sensitive with brand, prestige, and rankings.”
Typically, parents and students would refer to the QS World University Rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds or Times Higher Education (THE) World University rankings, which sets a benchmark for thousands of tertiary education institutions across the globe.
However, some critics have previously noted commercial interests and other non-educational considerations that affected the placement of the institutions in the rankings.
Competition for Indian, Chinese, and Asean students
Asked about geopolitical developments and how it has affected the inflow of students, particularly from large countries such as China and India, towards UK-oriented tertiary education, especially following the previous US administration led by Donald Trump, Ansell said America slightly punches below its weight in terms of the strengths, depth, and breadth of its higher education system.
However, she said the situation was improving for the US under the current government and that the UK would have to improvise on its education offerings in order to remain competitive.
“We did see that (arrival of more students to the UK) when Trump was putting some kind of off-putting rhetoric, that international students (took on a UK education), especially those from India because it coincides with the introduction of the post-graduate route,” she said, adding that the option allowed Indian graduates to the UK to live and work there after graduating.
“The (fact that) Indian students can come to the UK and then work there post-graduation does seem to be a game-changer with Indian students whereas that particular dynamic wasn’t so strong with Chinese students because of the different ways in which they fund their education.”
“Now of course with Joe Biden in power, with quite a change of direction to be more positive for international students in the US, we do recognise that we’ve got to up our game because we really want to continue to build relationships with international students from the whole of the Asia-Pacific region.”
Despite the existence of the post-graduate route and competition from other countries, Ansell said the UK still wanted to attract students from both China and India, apart from countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and other Asean nations.
“That’s partly because we want our campuses to be international and we think part of the offer to international students is that when they come to the UK, they will meet not only UK students, but students from many other countries with the vibrancy that it brings, and also the opportunity to build a global outlook.”
“I always think that we’re competing with the US and Australia in order to get Chinese and Indian students, not that Indian and Chinese students might be competing with each other.”
“We’ve still got our nose in the head though, they can bring it on and we can take the fight,” she quipped. – The Vibes, December 5, 2022
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