People put far too much stock in college rankings, both in the U.S. and internationally. The metrics used rarely capture actual quality for students. Recently, some rankings are showing that Chinese universities have raced past America’s — should we worry?

In today’s Martin Center article, John Mac Ghlionn argues that the rankings are worthless.

Chinese universities dominate the upper tiers of rankings produced by groups such as Leiden and the Nature Index. Commentators talk about a new academic world order. Some declare American decline. Others announce Chinese supremacy. Both conclusions rest on a shaky premise: that modern rankings measure what we think they measure.

Chinese universities dominate the upper tiers of rankings produced by groups such as Leiden and the Nature Index. Commentators talk about a new academic world order. Some declare American decline. Others announce Chinese supremacy. Both conclusions rest on a shaky premise: that modern rankings measure what we think they measure.

Those rankings are based mainly on research quantity, and the Chinese have figured out how to game that system.

Today’s tables lean heavily on two variables: how many papers a university produces and how often those papers are cited. That formula rewards scale, coordination, and relentless production. It punishes reflection, risk, and dissent. It also favors countries that can mobilize research as they might a factory line, scaling scholarship the way factories scale production. No country fits that description better than China, which has built exactly the system that global rankings now reward.

Today’s tables lean heavily on two variables: how many papers a university produces and how often those papers are cited. That formula rewards scale, coordination, and relentless production. It punishes reflection, risk, and dissent. It also favors countries that can mobilize research as they might a factory line, scaling scholarship the way factories scale production. No country fits that description better than China, which has built exactly the system that global rankings now reward.

The supposed rise of China is not a reason for concern, but Ghlionn points to ways the U.S. is hurting itself, such as the mania for “diversity” in research.

Read the whole thing.

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