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The CHE University Ranking in Germany

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Public Policy for Academic Quality

Part of the book series: Higher Education Dynamics ((HEDY,volume 30))

Abstract

University rankings have become widely influential in the last 10 years, both on a national and international scale. Rankings as a consumer information tool can function as an effective quality assurance mechanism. Most existing university rankings, however, seem to distort rather than improve the higher education market. The CHE ranking in Germany is an exception. It is a carefully designed ranking that minimizes the main conceptual and methodological problems that university rankings commonly face. The analysis in the chapter concludes that commercially oriented entities alone cannot provide a high quality university ranking. Original data collection and data verification is a costly activity and there is a strong incentive for commercial providers to rely on easily available statistics. Therefore, even if a commercial venue can be effective in compiling, presenting and marketing relevant information, the quality of a university ranking depends on the data collected by public or not-for-profit agencies.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Outside the USA, university rankings are often described as ‘‘league tables,’ reflecting the published rankings or standings of international football (i.e., soccer) teams. In this chapter, the term league tables will be used synonymously with university rankings.

  2. 2.

    See, e.g., the journal Higher Education in Europe 2002 vol. 27 no. 4 and 2005 vol. 30 no. 2, Dill and Soo (2005), and Usher and Savino (2006) for comparative analyses.

  3. 3.

    An important exception was the Good University Guide in Australia, which will be discussed below.

  4. 4.

    The CHE website http://www.che.de and the document CHE (2006) are used as primary source for the description below.

  5. 5.

    See: http://www.globecampus.ca/

  6. 6.

    For example, reputational surveys provide 16% of the total score in the Macleans ranking, 25% in the USNWR ranking, and 50% in the THES World ranking (Berghoff and Federkeil 2006).

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Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Gero Federkeil for providing us with valuable information on the CHE ranking system and for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of the chapter.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS), University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Maarja Beerkens

  2. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    David D. Dill

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  1. Maarja Beerkens
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  2. David D. Dill
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 27599-7090, North Carolina, USA

    David D. Dill

  2. CHEPS, University of Twente, Enschede, 7500 AE, Netherlands

    Maarja Beerkens

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Beerkens, M., Dill, D.D. (2010). The CHE University Ranking in Germany. In: Dill, D., Beerkens, M. (eds) Public Policy for Academic Quality. Higher Education Dynamics, vol 30. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3754-1_4

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