Research managers take aim at university rankings

International team warn of ‘clear weakness in declaring conflicts of interest’

An international group of research managers has claimed that university rankings are a poor reflection of institutions’ merits, with few measuring what matters and several having conflicts of interest.

Although they attract much attention from students, the media and university managers, rankings have a controversial history. Now complaints from academics and policy experts that rankings can seem arbitrary and not evidence-based have been given support by work from the International Network of Research Management Societies.