More to institutional rankings than meets the eye
THESE days, our colleges and universities are hardly getting any breathing space to reflect on what really matters — the organic relationship between engaged pedagogy and meaningful research; classroom transactions and critical reflections on the world we live in; or the dynamics of foundational sciences, liberal arts and humanities for the making of a humane and just society. Instead, these centres of learning are required to be continually restless for evolving all sorts of strategies to prove their ‘worth’ in front of a spectrum of ranking agencies — from the QS World University Rankings to our own National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). Not to be included in the list of ‘top’ 10 colleges/universities is a matter of shame for many of our principals and vice-chancellors!
It is not difficult to comprehend the reasons for this chronic obsession with ranking. Don’t forget that we live in an age that loves numbers; in fact, everything — from the experience of happiness of the inhabitants of a nation to the ‘intelligence’ one possesses — has to be measured, quantified, ranked and hierarchised. In the age of techno-science and ‘mathematical precision’, we seem to be uncomfortable with what refuses to be measured. It is, therefore, not surprising that even a qualitative experience like the process of being educated — the way it shapes our ways of seeing the world or the way it enriches our thoughts and visions — has to be measured, ranked and hierarchised. No wonder, a college/university has been reduced to a mere number (say, as far as the National Assessment and Accreditation Council, or, NAAC is concerned, the grade point of Jawaharlal Nehru University is 3.91 on a scale of four) that the ranking agencies calculate through a hugely problematic method.
Likewise, in this market-driven age of ceaseless consumption, it is becoming increasingly difficult to be free from the lure of ‘brand consciousness’. A typical consumer, it seems, loves the brand Starbucks more than the flavour of a cup of coffee. Likewise, a college/university has to be transformed into a ‘brand’. And in a neoliberal market, students cannot afford to be authentic seekers; they are consumers in search of a ‘brand’, be it Jadavpur University or the Indian Institute of Science. It is not important whether you really love to explore the domains of English literature or physics; what is important is your instrumental reasoning — the way the ‘brand value’ of your college/university enriches your CV for the job market! Moreover, as the ethos of hyper-competition is seen to be a necessary virtue for enhancing the ‘productivity’ of an institution, it is believed that that the academic productivity of a college/university can be enhanced only if it is put under constant pressure to perform, chase for the mythical number or grade and ‘defeat’ other institutions.
Even though there are many — including students and teachers — who are quite comfortable with the ‘science’ of ranking, we should not underestimate some of its damaging consequences.
In this context, let me make three points. First, as it attaches sole importance to what is measurable, it tends to devalue what is fundamentally qualitative — say, the experience of teaching and learning; the nature of the teacher-taught relationship; the cultural milieu of the college/university; and the psychic wellbeing of students. Think of a situation: A professor has worked rigorously, visited good libraries, discussed with the academic fraternity, evolved a new course, taught beautifully and aroused the critical thinking of young students. However, because of this intense engagement with the new course, she has not published any paper; or for that matter, she has not attended any international conference. Now, in the eyes of experts of the ranking agency, she has done nothing; her contribution is nil because the quality of her intellectual labour cannot be measured. In fact, the fetish for quantity often devalues the quality of publications. It is, therefore, not impossible to find a ‘smart’ professor with great ‘networking’ skills who might have published five research papers, attended three international conferences and authored an edited volume in a semester. Don’t ask about the quality of his research. As the numbers are on his side, he is likely to be more valuable than a sincere teacher. Yes, the trivialisation of research or the devaluation of teaching as a serious engagement is a logical consequence of the politics of ranking.
Second, the ranking obsession tends to reduce the faculty to a machine continually manufacturing ‘research papers’. Anyone who has a serous engagement with higher education knows that meaningful teaching and serious research require intensely contemplative and meditative moments; you cannot manufacture research papers the way a factory produces toothpaste. But then, if a teacher is constantly pressurised by the ‘brand-conscious’ head of the academic institution to produce research papers, manage the citation index, take up new projects or negotiate with the corporates so that the students get appropriate ‘placements’ , there will be no qualitative difference between a professor and
a salesperson.
And finally, ranking agencies are seldom interested in comprehending whether the quality of education the youngsters receive plays a transformative role, activates their humanistic/spiritual sensibilities, inspires them to resist war, xenophobic nationalism, market
fundamentalism and ecologically destructive developmentalism and equips them with appropriate knowledge, skills and politico-ethical sensibilities to heal this tormented world. Accept it — a ‘top ranking’ university need not necessarily be a good university, if by being ‘good’ you and I mean the cultivation of knowledge as awakened intelligence, love and the ethics of care.
However, who will tell these academic bureaucrats and their neoliberal bosses that there is something more to education than the statistics of publications, patents, ‘international’ conferences and placement narratives?
