QS rankings. Times Higher Education rankings. Shanghai rankings. Subject rankings. Reputation rankings.
For many academics, however, rankings can feel like something that happens somewhere else, often in a central administration building and far removed from the day-to-day realities of research, teaching and engagement.
And honestly, that's understandable.
Most academics don't start a research project because it might improve a QS ranking. They don't supervise a PhD student to help a university climb ten places. They don't accept an editorial board role because it might improve an institution's reputation score.
Instead, they pursue activities that help them build their discipline, advance knowledge, develop their careers and contribute to society.
The interesting thing is that many of these activities also happen to improve rankings.
Rankings as a By-Product
The most successful university rankings strategies are often not rankings strategies at all.
They are strategies that support excellent research, influential scholarship, international collaboration, professional visibility, and meaningful engagement with industry and society.
Rankings are often the outcome rather than the objective.
This is particularly true in subject rankings.
When academics participate in international collaborations, publish influential research, join editorial boards, examine PhD students, contribute to professional associations, or present keynote addresses, they are not usually doing so with rankings in mind.
Yet these activities contribute directly to the visibility, influence and reputation that rankings seek to measure.
The Academic Side Hustle
Perhaps rankings should be thought of as an academic side hustle.
Not in the sense of a second job, but as a secondary benefit generated from existing activities.
For example:
Activity | Primary Benefit | Rankings Benefit |
International research collaboration | Better research outcomes | Citations and reputation |
Editorial board membership | Professional standing | Academic reputation |
Conference keynote presentations | Visibility in the field | Academic reputation |
Industry engagement | Research impact and partnerships | Employer reputation |
International partnerships | New opportunities | Visibility and reputation |
Highly cited publications | Research influence | Citation metrics |
The rankings benefit arrives almost as a dividend from work that academics would likely undertake anyway.
The Fifteen-Minute Contribution
There are also some rankings activities that require very little additional effort but can have significant institutional impact.
One example is the nomination of contacts for international reputation surveys.
For rankings such as QS, universities can nominate academics and employers who may be invited to participate in reputation surveys.
Providing the names of collaborators, co-authors, editorial board colleagues, conference organisers or professional contacts can often take less than fifteen minutes.
For the individual academic, the benefit may be modest. For the institution, however, broader and more representative participation can strengthen the quality and coverage of reputation data.
This may be one of the highest rankings returns available for the lowest investment of academic time.
Visibility Matters
A common criticism of rankings is that they do not always measure quality perfectly.
There is some truth in that.
However, many rankings do attempt to measure something important:
Is excellent work being recognised by others?
A university may produce outstanding research, but if that work remains invisible outside a relatively small network, reputation and influence can lag underlying performance.
Visibility should not be confused with marketing.
Visibility is the result of participating actively in the communities that shape and advance a discipline.
Publishing, collaborating, presenting, reviewing, mentoring and leading all contribute to visibility.
A Better Conversation
Perhaps the conversation with academics should not begin with rankings at all.
Instead of asking:
What should we do to improve rankings?
A better question might be:
What can we do to increase the visibility, influence and impact of the excellent work already taking place?
The answer is likely to involve activities that improve both academic careers and institutional rankings.
In that sense, rankings become less of a target and more of a reflection.
Not the main job.
Just a very useful side hustle.
