Global Rankings in Swedish Universities : A Qualitative Study of Knowledge Management Practices
(2022) ABMM54 20221Division of ALM and Digital Cultures
- Abstract
- During the past two decades, the higher education sector has undergone rapid changes as a result of which many higher education institutions (HEIs) find themselves being compared to other institutions. Global rankings have become the prime mechanism for providing such comparisons. How nations and their HEIs respond to the developments in the higher education sector is context-specific. There is a limited number of studies investigating the impact of rankings on less competitive higher education systems, such as those in the Nordic region, and universities that perform quite well in the rankings but are not on the top of the ranking results. This thesis therefore sets out to better understand the relevance of global university rankings in... (More)
- During the past two decades, the higher education sector has undergone rapid changes as a result of which many higher education institutions (HEIs) find themselves being compared to other institutions. Global rankings have become the prime mechanism for providing such comparisons. How nations and their HEIs respond to the developments in the higher education sector is context-specific. There is a limited number of studies investigating the impact of rankings on less competitive higher education systems, such as those in the Nordic region, and universities that perform quite well in the rankings but are not on the top of the ranking results. This thesis therefore sets out to better understand the relevance of global university rankings in the context of Swedish HEIs. The aim of the study is to understand how universities work with international rankings from the perspective of bibliometricians and analysts, namely, specialists working directly with rankings. The theoretical framework is based on knowledge management theory and, more specifically, Gilbert Probst’s conceptual model. The empirical data were collected through semi-structured interviews with bibliometricians, analysts, and a researcher. The results show that various universities have chosen to delegate the task of monitoring rankings to different units, ranging from the university library to other departments closely related to central management. The prevalent view is that rankings are to some degree relevant for HEIs, but rankings should be considered with great caution and should not be used as a basis for strategic decision-making. Rankings do not constitute a central subject area in university organisational knowledge. Depending on the circumstances, rankings can become a more central subject area or remain on the periphery of the organisational knowledge base. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9094199
- author
- Dubina, Inga LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- ABMM54 20221
- year
- 2022
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- university rankings, knowledge management, analysts, bibliometricians, university libraries, central university management, Sweden
- language
- English
- id
- 9094199
- date added to LUP
- 2022-08-23 08:55:33
- date last changed
- 2022-08-23 08:55:33
@misc{9094199,
abstract = {{During the past two decades, the higher education sector has undergone rapid changes as a result of which many higher education institutions (HEIs) find themselves being compared to other institutions. Global rankings have become the prime mechanism for providing such comparisons. How nations and their HEIs respond to the developments in the higher education sector is context-specific. There is a limited number of studies investigating the impact of rankings on less competitive higher education systems, such as those in the Nordic region, and universities that perform quite well in the rankings but are not on the top of the ranking results. This thesis therefore sets out to better understand the relevance of global university rankings in the context of Swedish HEIs. The aim of the study is to understand how universities work with international rankings from the perspective of bibliometricians and analysts, namely, specialists working directly with rankings. The theoretical framework is based on knowledge management theory and, more specifically, Gilbert Probst’s conceptual model. The empirical data were collected through semi-structured interviews with bibliometricians, analysts, and a researcher. The results show that various universities have chosen to delegate the task of monitoring rankings to different units, ranging from the university library to other departments closely related to central management. The prevalent view is that rankings are to some degree relevant for HEIs, but rankings should be considered with great caution and should not be used as a basis for strategic decision-making. Rankings do not constitute a central subject area in university organisational knowledge. Depending on the circumstances, rankings can become a more central subject area or remain on the periphery of the organisational knowledge base.}},
author = {{Dubina, Inga}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Global Rankings in Swedish Universities : A Qualitative Study of Knowledge Management Practices}},
year = {{2022}},
}