Rankings: A tool to improve student satisfaction levels?

Global and national rankings are intended to provide an evaluation of universities’ performance in various areas and to assist universities in improving their status by addressing their shortcomings. Rankings are also designed to assist prospective students, employers and other stakeholders in the education system to understand the quality of education offered by different universities across the globe.

Rankings tend to focus on research, academic staff and internationalisation level (staff and students). However, universities are not just about research; there are a wide range of aspects as important as research that aren’t considered in many rankings, including facilities, student satisfaction, awards and employability. Measuring an extensive range of criteria is essential to the success of a ranking, which, in turn, supports the development of universities.

There are several national rankings in addition to global rankings, including the National Taiwan University Ranking, the I-UGR Rankings in Spain, the Bulgarian University Ranking System, the Pakistan Higher Education University Ranking and the Macedonian HEIs Ranking.

The organisation behind each ranking attempts to provide a comprehensive assessment of higher education institutions and programmes. It is possible to evaluate the quality of an institution or programme based on the ranking results provided by each ranking. Additionally, they can be used to compare different schools and programmes.

They also help international institutions to identify their strengths and weaknesses and determine what areas need to be improved. The rankings have been instrumental in helping higher education institutions improve their quality of education and strengthen their competitiveness in the international market.

Each of these ranking systems has its own unique methodologies, criteria and standards of measurement. However, despite their differences, they all aim to provide a comprehensive and comparable assessment of higher education institutions in their respective countries.

The purpose of having multiple rankings is to provide the best possible information to prospective students, policy-makers and investors. It also contributes to a healthy higher education sector by generating competition and improving the quality of education.

Why national rankings exist?

Why is it necessary to have national rankings? Recent studies have identified several factors that have contributed to the development of national rankings in some countries, including:

• Universities may not be in a position to be included in global rankings. For example, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings are based on research output and higher education institutions in some countries do not have the capacity to produce research outputs that would be considered world class.

This has resulted in some universities being excluded from the rankings, even though their research performance is comparable to the institutions that are included.

• The lack of full coverage in global rankings. Because many institutions are precluded from entry in rankings, the global rankings, on which they are based, can significantly understate the global standing of these institutions.

• The failure of global rankings to take into account the diversity of different universities and institutions. Rankings are most often designed to capture the performance of a small number of institutions. This can result in significant underrepresentation of institutions from different educational backgrounds, cultures and regions.

For example, a global ranking of universities based on the Times Higher Education World University Rankings would exclude many institutions and programmes that are world class and significantly understate the global standing of some institutions that are included.

• World-class universities are of interest to global rankings. In general, the criteria for being included in a global university ranking seek to show that an institution is of international academic standard. They tend to focus on the quantity and quality of research rather than the quantity and quality of students and faculty, the prestige of the faculty or the contribution of the faculty to society.

National rankings in Iraq

There are two ministries of higher education that are responsible for higher education and scientific research in Iraq. One is the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in the central government of Iraq, and the other is the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

There are both public and private higher education institutions in Iraq, which are made up of universities and technical institutes. The central and southern parts of Iraq are home to 36 public universities and 47 private universities, while the Kurdistan Region is home to 15 public universities and 16 private universities.

The university education programme offers a wide range of bachelor, masters and doctoral degrees, ranging from four to six years long in a wide variety of fields, such as medicine, science, humanities and social sciences.

Two national rankings systems have been implemented in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region: the Iraqi Ranking of Universities (IRU) (the first edition being in 2018), and the National University Ranking (NUR) (dating from 2015).

The IRU and NUR have significantly enhanced the publication of scientific research in high-indexed journals (Web of Science and Scopus), joint projects with international institutions and participation in international activities. A notable increase has been observed in the number of academic publications.

At the University of Baghdad, for example, 23,354 papers were published in Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus journals in 2021, compared to 2,885 papers in 2016-17. A substantial increase in publications was observed in 2021 following the implementation of the IRU, issued in 2018.

Similarly, at the University of Kufa, a public university in Najaf city founded in 1987, a significant increase in publications has been witnessed between 2017 and 2020.

Additionally, at Tishk International University, a private university in the Kurdistan Region, statistics show a total of just 13 papers in WoS and Scopus journals and 11 local papers during 2015-16, while in 2020-21 there were 110 WoS and Scopus papers and 74 local ones.

Similar increases have been documented at several other universities (public and private) in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.

According to the Scimago Journal and Country Rank in 2015, Iraq ranked ninth among Arab countries, with Saudi Arabia at the top. At that time, Iraqi national rankings were not available. Iraq, however, climbed to third place after Saudi Arabia and Egypt in the 2020 edition of Scimago Journal and Country Rank. Within five years, such an increase in ranking is remarkable.

The main factors contributing to this increased publication output are the rising number of Iraqi journals indexed in Scopus and the implementation of effective incentive systems. The requirements associated with promotion in the current system have also played a role in increasing publication output.

Furthermore, the growth in publications is a reflection of the way rankings play a role in universities’ strategic planning and decision-making. For example, many universities have adopted the goal of being among the best in Iraq in their field, which has led to an increase in research productivity.

To enable universities to regenerate their institutional power and resources, rankings should consider all university-related criteria and assign reasonable weight to them so that rankings can serve as a tool for improving insufficiencies.

Could we boost student satisfaction too?

In addition to the above-mentioned factors, we need to consider the weight given to research in the two rankings, IRU and NUR, which may account for the significant increase in publications. While we cannot deny the importance of research and the contributions made by researchers to their fields or specialisations, are universities solely intended for this purpose?

Well, no doubt not. It is the responsibility of universities to grant degrees to students after they have fulfilled the degree requirements and achieved the learning outcomes. So should students who are among the most important stakeholders in universities be given the opportunity to express their opinion about the services and learning processes provided to them, and if so, by whom and how?

It is unfortunate that most existing rankings place a greater emphasis on research than on student achievement. Due to university strategies implemented to increase research publications, which take into account the heavy weight that is assigned to research, publications have significantly increased in Iraq in the last two years.

Research is given a 30% weighting in the IRU departmental ranking in contrast to a 15% weighting for student satisfaction with services and educational outcomes. The NUR-KRG ranking places a high emphasis on scientific research at 37%, while student satisfaction is only given a 3% weighting.

Consider the scenario in which student satisfaction is given a score of more than 20%. Would that not mean that universities would develop strategies more tailored to meet the needs of their students? It is certainly something to consider.

Sameerah T Saeed is funding coordinator at the Monitoring and Quality Assurance Agency of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research – Kurdistan Region, Erbil, Iraq.