From newspaper supplement to data company: Tracking rhetorical change in the Times Higher Education’s rankings coverage

Hansen, Morten Hjorslev; Bossche, Astrid Van den

doi:10.1016/j.poetic.2021.101637

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 42 publications

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“…Rankers seem to take their social media and other types of online engagement quite seriously, which urges us to look beyond their ranking tables if we are to grasp a fuller picture of how a particular effect is produced. The recent study by Hansen and Van den Bossche (2022), which tracks rhetorical change in the Times Higher Education's rankings coverage, vividly captures how subtle yet potent this effect can be. Altogether, these insights indicate that dynamics in the public domain-whether digital, in print or in person-are worth observing when asking questions about how rankers invoke, engage, and influence their audiences.…”

Section: Engagementmentioning

confidence: 98%

The institutionalization of rankings in higher education: continuities, interdependencies, engagement

2023

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In this article, we introduce the special issue of Higher Education that centers on the question of the institutionalization of rankings in higher education. The article has three parts. In the first part, we argue that the grand narratives such as globalization and neoliberalism are unsatisfactory as standalone explanations of why and how college and university rankings become institutionalized. As a remedy, we invite scholars to pay closer attention to the dynamics specific to higher education that contribute to the proliferation, persistence, and embeddedness of rankings. In the second part, we weave the articles included in the issue into three sub-themes—continuities, interdependencies, and engagement—which we link to the overarching theme of institutionalization. Each contribution approaches the subject of rankings from a different angle and casts a different light on continuities, interdependencies, and engagement, thus suggesting that the overall story is much more intricate than often assumed. In the third and final part, we restate the main takeaways of the issue and note that systematic comparative research holds great promise for furthering our knowledge on the subject. We conclude the article with a hope that the special issue would stimulate further questioning of rankings—in higher education and higher education research.

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Section: Engagementmentioning

confidence: 98%