The academic arms race: international rankings and global competence for world class universities

Author: Jürgen Enders
Abstract: This article turns to institutional field theories to analyze the role of international rankings in the global completion for world class universities. Rankings provide a controversial area among actors regarding whether they are the appropriate participants in the field; with a socially standard construction for comparison, success and legitimacy. The way of constructing these standards is dictated, to a great extent, by the existing international reputation hierarchies, which favor reputation and research. An increasing share of research also utilizes this frame in studying governmental policies and organizational strategies that agree with the game of rankings.