Social and political context, ideology and effects of university rankings

The article contains a review of English-language papers analyzing the context of the appearance of university rankings, their ideology, and effects on the education system. Rankings are viewed as a manifestation of managerialism, "audit culture", as a result of the application of market principles in education. Analysis in terms of M. Foucault and P. Bourdieu shows, that rankings reinforce the existing hierarchy and inequalities between universities and on other levels of education system, as well as unify universities. Most effects of rankings are either negative for all universities, or produce "Matthew effect", which means that successful schools become more successful, and the position of "weak" ones become even weaker.