New Report Highlights the Need for College Rankings Based on Social Impact

The King’s College London report explains the need to implement global rankings of higher education institutions according to their impact on social needs.

Universities are positively impacting their communities; however, compared to the number of publications on topics having to do with science or educational quality, the scarcity of articles on the social impact of universities is evidence that this is not being measured.

Advancing University Engagement: University engagement and global league tables, the new report developed by King’s College London, the University of Chicago, and the University of Melbourne, discusses the visibility given to the social value of higher education in the metrics of global rankings.

The Vice-presidents and principal actors of these universities, together with the management consulting firm, the Nous Group, have developed a new frame of reference for classifying institutions according to their level of social commitment, which could be included in these global rankings. “If universities could develop some objective measures for this engagement, they might be able to find ways to integrate them into the various methodologies that are used to define the ‘performance’ or ‘quality'” of a university,” argues the report.

Also, it is presumed that the implementation of this classification will motivate universities to target more funding and make a greater effort to benefit social needs because they would be influenced by the reports that would make this more visible in the education sector. The report aims to provide evidence to eliminate the skepticism toward higher education that has been growing because of high tuition and inequities in learning. Recognizing the social value that universities provide to their communities “demonstrates the return on investment of public funds in accessible terms.”

“Universities are often the anchor institutions in their communities, and as such, they have the ability to make a tremendous positive impact,” said Derek R.B. Douglas, Vice President of Civic Engagement and External Affairs at the University of Chicago, for the King’s College London site. “The framework proposed by this report would provide a concrete way of measuring that impact and encourage universities not only to participate when societal needs are most pressing but would also make that participation the center of their identity as an institution.”

In the third pilot study of this report, more than 15 universities in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Latin America, Asia, and Canada participated and received feedback from the global sector of Higher Education. From this, several key civic engagement indicators were developed in the report.

Eight indicators of civic commitment in universities

1. University responsibility for social commitment: the commitment of senior leadership and college strategy to social participation.

2. Community opinion of the university: the vision of the partners toward the university (the community, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and government).

3. Student Access: The proportion of pre-university students who participate in a program of “college readiness” or “access.” This shows that the institution supports underrepresented groups and is committed to preparing these people for higher education

4. Volunteering: The proportion of students and staff participating in university-led volunteer/service programs. This shows that the institution makes it easier for its members to give back to the community.

5. Scope of research outside of academic journals: The proportion of non-academic mentions (citations in gray literature, communications media, policy documents, and other places outside traditional journals) to the total tracked outputs produced by the university.

6. Community-service learning within the university curriculum: The proportion of the curriculum dedicated to engagement in service-learning, and the proportion of students participating in these courses. The units or subjects devoted to community engagement are defined thus: students receive credit for the course, which has a practical lab involving community participation. This excludes activities that are linked to professional accreditation.

7. Socially responsible purchases: The proportion of the university’s negotiable budget that is spent on procurement for social benefit.

8. Carbon footprint: Total metric tons of carbon emissions produced by a university each year, including direct emissions produced by the university’s operations.

College rankings often create a concept of the educational quality that the participating universities provide, and these rankings, as the large advertising sites release them, tend to influence the decisions made by institutions. Advancing University Engagement mentions that it desires to use this same influence for better recognition of social participation.

The Director of the UPP Foundation explains, “Rankings are problematic for a range of reasons, but while we might want to wish them away, the reality is that they’re here to stay. Therefore it would be much better if existing and new rankings included the value universities bring to society, so they provide a more comprehensive picture of our sector. The report provides an important contribution to this debate and includes a sensitive range of indicators.”

The current crisis only underscores the need to measure and publicize the social value that higher education brings. This report is the promising start to a more civic and socially responsible culture within the framework of global rankings. The authors mention that the next steps to follow after this publication include the search for collaborations and partners who will help to take social engagement by the universities to the next level.

Translation by Daniel Wetta.

Paola Villafuerte

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This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0