Higher Education Institutions simultaneously critique and participate in
national and international rankings of universities. However, this
creates a difficult situation since if universities do participate in
rankings they acquiesce to a system based in media logics that has
little to do with academic norms of research. If they do not participate
in the rankings they risk losing public funding, students and donors in
an increasingly competitive and globalized environment. This book delves
into the influence of journalists, business tycoons and multinational
corporations in defining what world class is and how it will be
measured. Rankings provide us with a rich study for understanding how
universities define, deploy and manage their assets and liabilities in a
mediatized globalized economy.