by Mark Bentley, Cheryl Yu
Rankings may become self-fulfilling. Institutions leverage their ranking to attract the opportunities, funding and students, which can feed into their chances of ranking highly. But is it really as simple as that when it comes to the UK’s international student recruitment? Do the “best” universities always enrol the “best” students?
A world of choice can easily be confusing and overwhelming to prospective international applicants. Rankings can be a simple tool to make sense of a university’s standing and help students and those guiding them filter their searches. No doubt they have a big impact on decision-making.
This is particularly true in China. In recent UK HESA data, we continue to see Russell Group universities attracting huge numbers of Chinese students and making up a large proportion of their intake. UCL has over 10,000 students from China alone! World university rankings and whether or not a university is in the Russell Group, can heavily influence prospective students’ university selection.
Little wonder, as the importance of ranking is perpetuated globally in the media, sometimes in government policy and of course so often by the universities themselves. Prestigious institutions emphasise their ranking and even lower ranked institutions boast their proudest specific ranking achievements. Who can blame Chinese students for being rankings-sensitive?
Not all source countries are quite as ranking sensitive or perhaps can’t afford to be. The UK Graduate Route visa, has brought huge rises in masters students from India and Nigeria. For the most part, lower ranked institutions have enjoyed the biggest gains, but does that mean that Indian and Nigerian students are any less qualified? As the sector knows only too well, the trend so much about eligibility, but is economically driven. In contrast to the ranking-sensitive Chinese market, prospects in India and Nigeria are more likely to be price-sensitive in their searches. They often look for the most affordable options and tend towards lower ranked UK institutions with lower fees.
In fact, surprisingly often, masters courses at “top” universities have similar academic entry requirements to those at the other end of the tables. Admissions equivalencies can vary between institutions, but in more than a few cases, top 20 institution courses ask for a 2:2 equivalent at degree level – the same academic requirement for similarly titled courses at universities in the bottom 20.
Even if Chinese students tend to be less restricted financially, are those UK universities ranked so highly in national and global tables attracting China’s top talent? Perhaps not. Much of the drive from China towards globally highly ranked UK institutions, is from those who have not gained entry into a tier 2 level university in China, not to mention tier 1 or the top 100 universities in China. In this context the global rankings make less sense.
And how can we make sense of the growth in China market share of highly ranked UK institutions. According to HESA data, UCLAN had 1130 Chinese students in 2014/15, but by 2021/22 the reported number dropped to 395. Unless we believe their has been a sudden jump in the academic merit of Chinese students, then many of the same level of students who used to go to lower ranked UK institutions are now filling the “top” institutions.
Universities may be the most obsessed with their rankings, but in the end they should be for the students. Though league tables can be a valuable guide, students should not assume that a universities rankings will always correlate with the academic merit of the students they will study alongside. There appears to be much more correlation between ranking and the price students can find expect to find listed, as well as the proportion of nationalities they can expect to meet.
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