In the academic capitalist knowledge regime, institutions compete for prestige and funding. Reward structures emphasize science and engineering (S&E) fields for their potential to generate money and status. Masculine norms and male majority in S&E fields may create conditions for gender differences in faculty compensation. We explored the…

Students at America's most renowned private universities face different acceptance rates, college wealth, class sizes, and potential graduate earnings even in comparison with students at the nation's highest-ranking public institutions. The analyses that led to these findings frequently focused on national or state-wide comparisons of public…

College rankings have become a powerful influence in higher education. While the determinants of educational quality are not clearly defined, college rankings designate an institution's standing in a numerical order based on quantifiable measurements that focus primarily on institutional resources. Previous research has identified the…

University rankers are the subject of much criticism, and yet they remain influential in the field of higher education. Drawing from a two-year field study of university ranking organizations, interviews with key correspondents in the sector, and an analysis of related documents, I introduce the concept of "weak expertise." This kind of…

As Facebook enables adolescents to present themselves positively by means of their Facebook profile and to gain positive feedback for doing so, the aim of the current study is to investigate which kinds of adolescents' positive self-presentation in profile pictures and status updates are associated with positive feedback in terms of Likes from the…

The objective of this article is to study some of the intended and unintended effects on academe of the evolving global ranking game. I will start with some broader points on the global ranking game, the formal terms and economic interests it promotes, then continue with a presentation of the Shanghai ranking and its main rival the Times Higher…

The global academic system is hierarchically structured between a center, a semi-periphery and a periphery. We analyze to what extent the position of a country and a university within this hierarchy of scientific reputation shapes doctoral students' chances of international mobility. We conducted an exploratory experimental study using fake…

Concern with university rankings have become widespread throughout post-secondary education (PSE), fuelled in part by administrative concerns that demotions down the rank ladder will produce negative institutional outcomes. There is reason to believe, however, that ranking 'effects' may be partially muted in Canadian PSE due to the (1) national…

The determinants of study abroad student inflows and outflows are analyzed by comparing the faculties of all Czech public universities. The article develops an institutionalist theoretical perspective that views higher education institutions not only as passive senders and receivers of students but also as active gatekeepers that regulate student…

While higher education research has paid considerable attention to the impact of both ratings and rankings on universities, less attention has been devoted to how university subunits, such as Schools of Education, are affected by such performance measurements. Anchored in a neo-institutional approach, we analyze the formation of a competitive…

The competition for international students has spurred higher education institutions (HEIs) to craft marketing campaigns to appeal to potential students, with social media providing an increasingly prominent platform for such interactions. We analyse the social media data trails (Facebook posts) of two Israeli HEIs to reveal how they portray…

From the time of ancient Greece until late nineteenth-century Europe, the humanities enjoyed a status of respect and prestige. From the latter half of the 1990s, their status and prestige dropped, mainly due to the low economic value of the humanities for a goal-oriented generation and due to the limited representation of humanities graduates in…

This study investigates the changing discourses of the value of degrees in prospectuses between 1976 and 2013, chosen due to the massification of higher education and use of the particular marketing tool of prospectuses. This research analysed the messages in prospectuses through the period in four English higher education institutions of…

Relational aggression involves excluding peers from social activities and spreading harmful rumors about the victim. Assumptions that only girls are victimized in this way are largely debunked, yet there is little research to explain why boys are victimized in this manner. This study poses the possibility that male adolescent victimization by…

One can observe a growing external pressure on universities to become more responsive to society through proactively engaging in various types of competition--competing for students, staff, external funding, and for academic prestige and status. The ensuing reform agendas aim at changing the intra-university governance structures for stimulating…