On the Perception of Global University Rankings by the Academic Сommunities of the World: Europe

The article continues a series of publications on how global university rankings are perceived by academic communities in different world regions and focuses on the European context. Drawing on more than a dozen and a half studies and expert reports, it analyzes seven interrelated strands of criticism: the methodological vulnerability of indicators and aggregation procedures, the narrowing of the concept of quality and the university mission, disciplinary, linguistic and territorial biases, the strengthening of stratification and inequality, the impact of rankings on university governance and academic behaviour, as well as the political and regulatory uses of rankings. It is shown that European debates – from decisions by individual universities to withdraw from global league tables to discussions around U-Multirank – reveal the systemic limitations of the existing ranking system and encourage the development of multidimensional and less unjust ways of assessing the quality of higher education.