Page 274 - Becoming Metric Wise

266 Becoming Metric-Wise

8.4.6 Do Rankings Lead to More Inequality? (Van Parijs,
2009)

Van Parijs (2009) further discusses the question if ranking leads to
increased inequality. At first sight the answer seems to be “yes.” Yet, this
may depend on the point of view. The higher a university’s score (espe-
cially from the point of view of the podium model) the bigger its attrac-
tion to potential students and to scientists that want to become a member
of its academic teams. This results in increased money flows. The lower
the ranking the less the university’s attractiveness to students and potential
professors. All this leads to a spiral of increasing inequality among
universities.
What about the inequality between individuals? The more important
the rankings the larger the inequality among professors, researchers and all
scientific university members. The best researchers may move up to the
best universities, possibly leading to higher salaries. Note though that this
is not evident: it seems that in some of the best universities average sala-
ries are somewhat lower than those at runners-up, as scientists want to
“pay” for the privilege of working at a top university. Conversely, univer-
sities aspiring to reach the top are willing to pay higher salaries in order
to keep their best scientific performers. It goes without saying that top
universities are able to provide researchers with better research facilities.
Yet, inequality may lead to more competition among scientists, hence
weakening their bargaining power with respect to the university adminis-
tration. Hence, for scientists rankings are a mixed blessing. Finally, the
market model, especially the existence of “my rankings,” may benefit less
privileged students leading to reduced inequality, as these students do not
have the kind of networks that richer students have.

8.4.7 Rankings and an Ideal University
Finding better rankings is not just a technical or informetric question
(Van Raan, 2005), it is also an ethical question (Loobuyck, 2009; Van
Parijs, 2009). When university policy makers have defined what they see
as an ideal university (and their opinions may differ), universities can be
ranked according to different views on this ideal. According to Loobuyck
(2009) it would be better not to rank whole universities but disciplines,
specialized research institutes or departments (including those especially
fostering multidisciplinary research). This is actually done by the Leiden
and the SCImago ranking.