Page 273 - Becoming Metric Wise

265
Research Evaluation

make “my rankings” available, data must be collected on departmental
level (or a similar unit), as global data i.e., data referring to a university as
a whole are too coarse. It is an open question where funds (for collecting
those enormous amounts of data, in such a way that comparisons become
meaningful) are to be found to realize this idea.

The Podium Model
In this model, ranking is the result of a yearly “World Championship.”
The “best university in the world” features at the top step while runners-
up also have a place on the winners’ podium. This approach is in an
essential way different from the market model. Even if students had no
choice at all, this model would still exist as university leaders want their
university to be the best in the world. Of course, as in reality, students do
have a choice (be it a restricted one), the podium value can be used as a
sales argument for attracting prospective students. Obviously, no univer-
sity leader can ignore this function of university rankings. Whatever one’s
feelings about such lists, it is vain hope to believe that they will disappear,
if alone because of their role played in the podium model.

The Input-Output Model
However, those responsible for the resources devoted to universities and
institutes of higher education need another type of list. They are not so
much interested in an absolute scale of accomplishments but in the effi-
ciency with which universities handle the means entrusted to them. Not
all universities start on an equal footing: some have more supporting staff;
some are situated in a more attractive part of the country (or of the
world) and so on. Policy makers want to know how a university trans-
forms means into relevant accomplishments. Allocating money to the best
performers in this sense will lead to a better attainment of the objectives
of educational authorities. Moreover, if one university performs signifi-
cantly better than another, and this using the same amount of or even
fewer resources, there might be good reasons to imitate the methods of
the better performing one.
These three models are related. We already pointed out that a high
rank according to the podium model can be used as an asset for the mar-
ket model and the input-output model can only be applied if one starts
from a version of the podium model. Indeed, efficiency can only be
defined with respect to specific goals. This leads to the idea of the ideal
university, already mentioned earlier in this chapter.