Commentary: The relentless pursuit of university rankings is creating a two-track system

SMU Professor of Strategic Management (Practice) Pang Eng Fong and University of Michigan’s Professor Linda Lim commented that global university rankings have limitations and often do not correlate with national or local economic performance. Although often being used conveniently as a gauge by institutions, these rankings do not take into account the factors that influence its outcome and also the quality of educational experience. The rankings are also based on metrics that favour research that is universally-generalisable and theoretically-driven, they are less likely to include context-specific research on Singapore, which is more likely to be undertaken by Singaporean faculty. In short, pursuing high university rankings is not only unlikely to benefit Singapore and Singaporeans, it may also have unintended negative consequences, and for little if any gain in rankings themselves.