At the beginning of the week, eleven large Canadian universities announced that they would not participate in the Maclean’s university rankings this year. They decry what they say is poor methodology of the ranking. I heard that the dude from Maclean’s said that they are open to valid criticism, that they are being going to be more open with their data, and, as I predicted, that they improve the process every year.
One story I read quoted a fellow using a hackneyed phrase saying that Maclean’s‘ methodology compared “apples and oranges.” Another story quoted a more extreme, less common comparison of “apples and furniture.”
I say that arbitrary judgements in the process are unavoidable and that universities should accept it, but that Maclean’s does make some decisions that seem silly.
I also say that Maclean’s should improve at improving so that when there is more competition in the comparing universities game that they don’t lose their edge. Further to that, the universities should try to encourage competition by organizing all universities to give their Maclean’s submissions to a competing ranking outfit, so that competition develops more quickly.
Given my gator-like grasp and my incomparable insight on the issue, I was dismayed though, perhaps not surprised by the terrible editorial in The Rec.
Here I will annotate quotes from it to demo what’s wrong. (more…)
