Many American universities are on international league tables of university rankings far ahead of the rest of the world.While university rankings have all kinds of biases built into them and can be pretty meaningless (except for marketing purposes and below institutional level, especially at subject level; for those interested in this, there is a growing literature on rankings), it is nonetheless fascinating to visit universities that are apparently in the top league of globally ranked universities (... and here I already fell for it LOL). It is interesting to see how they look and operate, especially since so far I have only had opportunity to study and teach at three high ranking universities - the University of Olso, the University of Cape Town, and the University of the Western Cape.
Of these three, the University of Olso is the highest ranked by ARWU (Rank 67 & best in Norway) and QS (rank 111) but not by THES (201-225); UCT is ranked ahead of UiO by THES (rank 103) but not by ARWU (but, best in Africa) and not by QS (156). UCT is also one of the "Big 5" research-intensive universiteis in South Africa (together with Wits, UP, UKZN, and Stellenbosch). UWC is ranked by ARWU as 7th best in Africa; it is also typically ranked number 6 or 7 in South Africa, trading places occasionally with the much smaller Rhodes University. These are 2010/11 rankings. (So, if you had to make up your mind where to study Higher Education Policy, would you find them helpful?)
I have of course had the opportunity to visit many other great (and highly ranked) universities in the world, especially for research, conferences or workshops, and the occasional guest lecture too. Among them in South Africa I have visited the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University) in Jozi, Fort Hare University, University of Pretoria, University of Johannesburg, Stellenbosch University, University of Venda, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Free State University, Cape University of Technology, UNISA etc. etc., and I've done research at some of the greatest African universities, like the University of Ghana at Legon and the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. In Europe too, I've had the chance to work at the Institute for Education of the University of London, I've visited the University of Lancaster, the Universities of Basel, Zurich and Lausanne, and the famous Federal Institute of Techology (ETH) in Zurich, which is the top ranked continental European university. I've even once spent three weeks at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg (guess where that is). What has always struck me, is that from the outside, the various universities look remarkably similar. Sure there is the historical and the historicist as against the ultramodern and the 70s concrete bunker; nonetheless, as Prof Peter Maassen from Olso University puts it so well, you will always recognise a university when you see one! There is a certain Wittgensteinian family resemblance that they all share, whether well-resourced or resource-deprived, rural or urban, campus-based or spread all over town, university architecture, university students, and university academics, are somewhat .... unmistakable.
Now two weeks ago I presented a paper at UC Berkeley and then had some meetings in NY and visited NYU and Columbia University. I thus had the opportunity to observe from the outside and very superficially how these very top ranked American universities look and operate. A website can give you only so much of an impression - albeit, with no offence, there is already a huge gap between the webpresence of, for example, UCT and UWC, and again UDSM.
Now, UC Berkeley is ranked by ARWU 4th in the world, it has THES rank 9 and QS rank 21. Columbia University is supposedly, according to ARWU No. 8 in the world, QS however ranks it 10th and THES 12th. And lastly, NYU is 27th in the Shanghai ranking, 43rd by QS and 41st by THES. As I said, unless we can compare specific subject fields this is all pretty meaningless information. What is perhaps more meaningful as a superficial impression is what I gained in this week in the USA. Namely that while Berkeley looks just like Wits or UCT, and so does Columbia University - except that all is a bit bigger, but that's New York in general, of course, not Columbia in particular - and, apart that NYU doesn't have a distinct campus like many of our stunning African flagship universities like UDSM on Mlimani hill, they operate in one distinct way very differently from what I am used to. And here I speak specifically about the Humanities. What was so remarkable is that most academic staff offices were locked up and closed. The time-honoured
American faculty is in absentia. They, so I've been told, only come to campus when they absolutely must: to lecture, for consultation times (absolute minimum) or faculty meetings. Thanks to ICT they now 'hide (?)' and work mostly from home (or an off campus office).
American faculty is in absentia. They, so I've been told, only come to campus when they absolutely must: to lecture, for consultation times (absolute minimum) or faculty meetings. Thanks to ICT they now 'hide (?)' and work mostly from home (or an off campus office).
Having been responsible for a Master's programme this year, I can understand why they do so... We are greatly encouraged to have an open-door policy, but you just can't get good research done when every 5 minutes someones barges in. Hmmm. Here I felt guilty for most of this year when I went to 'hide' for a day of 'research day' per week in the CHET's Wynberg offices. Now I felt strangely affirmed. Academic life is stressful as it is and wanting to keep up a good research programme along with time to supervise and teach requires time for contemplation. To push that into afterhours and weekends during term is just not an option, and to defer serious research work to the off-term weeks is just not going to sustain world-class research. So, the American academics in research universities have clearly found one way of keeping them rankings up,up. Run from your students and chatty colleagues, run.
The conference I attended was looking at studying the undergraduate student experience in research universities. I am very much looking forward to studying the data and what it says about so-called "student-faculty interaction" in those top-ranked universities.
