International, National and Intra-University Rankings as a Motivator of Quality and Success: The Experience of Sumy State University

Abstract

Despite their shortcomings, university rankings have become one of the most important, popular, and practical tools for measuring the effectiveness of activities in the world’s educational and scientific space, a kind of external audit mechanism. They are also an effective tool for decision-making by stakeholders, a means of introducing a culture of competitiveness into the work of personnel, and, of course, a critical management factor that can help optimize existing and establish new internal business processes, that is, be a tool for self-analysis, benchmarking and strategic planning. Ranking methodologies are constantly updated, and higher education institutions aim to increase attention to one or another direction of educational and scientific activity, as well as the fulfilment of the “third” mission, in particular, the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. International rankings of universities are diverse; they can be conventionally grouped into five categories: scientific and educational activity, research, Sustainable Development Goals achieving, ecological orientation, and assessment of webometric indicators. At the same time, the rankings of one category differ according to specific indicators, methodological aspects and have different regional appeal. The experience of Sumy State University proves the need to participate and consider the maximum possible number of ranking measurements in the current activity. Formulated priorities and conceptual principles of activity of Sumy State University in the 2000s are ambitious, as they provided for the development of a European-level university based on research and entrepreneurial model, and do not lose their relevance. The meaning of the rankings is determined, given their role in forming the general and functional strategies of the university’s development. The tool for implementing these strategies is the development of an intra-university ranking, which is aimed at the comprehensive evaluation of activities, development of a self-evaluation system, provoking multi-level competition, and adjustment of structural divisions for effective action in the global educational space. This intra-university ranking covers all critical areas of activity of the structural units of the university: scientific and pedagogical potential, formation of a contingent of education seekers, quality of educational and scientific and extracurricular work with students, quality of international activity, level of publication of results of scientific activity, quality of training of scientific and pedagogical personnel, quality of presentation of activity results on the Internet and media space, financial evaluation of innovative activity, as well as international and national levels of measurement of multidisciplinary activity. The article states that understanding the dependence of the country’s success on the quality of education and science necessitates the creation of national ratings and government programs to support the most successful universities. The national ranking, in particular and unlike the international ones, due to the increase in the number of sources of statistical information, has the opportunity to take into account a more significant number of various factors for all three missions of the university (research, educational activity, the level of socio-economic impact) and should be as transparent as possible. In the national rating, there is an opportunity to overcome one of the critical shortcomings of the international university ratings — the inconsistency of the international and domestic interpretation of statistical data and to simplify the data validation process significantly. The article contains several suggestions on the essence of what has been stated.