2015 World Universities
Rankings – Using The Big Lie to Perpetuate Fraud and Myth of Excellence.
Phony? Fraud? Ponzi? Scam? Snake Oil? Or
Academic Dishonesty?
"The Bigger the Lie, the
more it will be believed."
– Hitler in Mein Kamp,
1925 -
By MIKOspace
Adolf
Hitler perfected the “Big Lie” as a propaganda technique about the use of a Lie
so "colossal" that no one would believe that someone "could have
the impudence to distort the truth so infamously."
An European
Government-commissioned study concluded that top World Universities Rankings
Standards are so based on dubious data and subjective weightings
of factors that they are useless as a basis for information if the goal
is to improve higher education. “Useless” - its verdict on a popular World
Universities Ranking Standard after a thorough and in-depth decomposition of
its methodology.
World Universities
Ranking Standards are a global multi-billion dollar industry.
A higher ranking translates to University
fees from more unsuspecting students especially from the emergent rich
developing countries from China, India and East Asia. To
the Vendors, it means revenue from consultancy, publications and media exposure.
For Universities Administrators and Managers, they represent profitable
performance results, never mind that the Standards have little, often nothing,
to do with their Universities’ learning mission outcome.
For parents, the Rankings represent a
convenient solution to the difficult task of University choice for their
children, never mind that they had invented and perpetuated the Myth
of “One
Best University” as well as the
obvious Big Lie that “One University Fits All” regardless of your child’s interests, subject preference,
learning ability and career choice. Because these students and their parents do not know better, they became
easy victims to the Predators of the True
Big Lies and Delusions about Universities Ranking Standards.
The United
Nations Education agency, UNESCO, has challenged the validity and reliability
of University Rankings calling the World Universities
Ranking Standards Bogus Ranking Standards of
Dubious Excellence, as most University Professors and Academics.
The
London-based QS World Universities Ranking has been called “a
Fraud on the public.” Another Eminent Professor said: “QS simply doesn’t do
as good a job as the other rankers that are using multiple indicators”. The Eminent Professor Simon
Marginson of then Melbourne University remarked that: “I do think social
science-wise it’s so weak that you can’t take the results seriously”.
The BIG LIE Exposed.
To its naïve,
gullible and unsuspecting market of prospective students and their parents, the
methodology behind creating the Big
Lie of World Universities Ranking Standards is vague enough so that no
average reader can quite figure out how and why these Universities are ranked
as they did. However, the Standards and their respective systems with its
publications of numbers and statistics, supported by enthusiastic endorsements
by Universities, politicians and some Professors, seem clear enough to suggest
a façade of validity, thereby completing Hitler’s Big Lie formula.
Governments have a duty to
intervene and ban the use of World Universities Rankings Standards by its
public-funded Universities. It is like any false and misleading marketing. Some Universities have been known to submit
incomplete
and false data to Standards Vendors in the hope of
improving their rankings.
Singapore’s
involvement with the Big Lie of World Universities Ranking is a case in
point. Known globally for our Authentic
Accomplishments, our Universities were seduced
by the tsunami of the Fraudulent World Universities Rankings at the turn of
the 21st Century.
When ranked
undeservingly low by the Rankers, Singapore’s NTU, one of only 2 top local and
Great Universities, began to re-calibrate actively in accordance with the Big
Lie’s definition of “world excellence”.
Never mind that their common Mission was and has always been the Creation
of Singapore’s Future. The impact
of NTU’s research excellence which had encouraged entrepreneurship in its
faculty and students and produced many spin-off companies were trivialized
to just research paper citations.
To satisfy the Rankers’ preference for foreign students
and faculty members, NTU embarked on a
systematic purge of local Professors, never mind that many are tenured, have
accomplished internationally, and have served the University with distinction, and
denied
admission to many qualified Singaporeans by increasing foreign students
admission, and forcing those from better income families to seek and obtain
admissions to, ironically, top Universities overseas.
Some laws were also possibly broken with regard
to the constitutional protection of Singaporean Professors and their retirement
age, but the irrational, mindless frenzy
spared nothing to obtain a Brand of Questionable Authenticity.
A few hundred Singaporean Professors
were purged from 2007 to beyond 2010. And more than 6,500 Singaporean students,
or between 1,700-1,900 annually, were denied NTU admission into various 3-year
and 4-year Undergraduate Programs from 2009-2013.
Finally by 2014, NTU was ranked as the Top
Youngest University in the World by QS Ranker, and ranking just 39th
Worldwide. Indeed, what a “climb” from
77th in 2008! Indeed,
a Pyrrhic and Hollow Victory, nothing more.
Never in the short History of
Singapore has so much been owed by the Nation to so many Singaporeans so
stupidly sacrificed for nothing of any worthy value to our Future or the World.
Seriously, enough is enough of the stupid
stuff! The Singapore Government
should direct our Universities to ignore the Big Lie of World Universities
Ranking Standards, as so wisely counseled by one of the main Ranker himself.
Singapore universities should
no longer participate in the Big Lie of any “World Universities Ranking” Fraud and lends our hard-earned Reputation for Authenticity and
Honesty to mask their lack of credibility, validity and reliability. We must continue to uphold the honest
Truth before the World and ourselves, not out of fear of laws and penalties but
because this is WHO WE ARE. Our High Standards of integrity and honesty reflect
the Society we want to live in, and the values we uphold and hold ourselves to
embrace.
Read the
Full Article:
Kopi Level - Green
1 comment:
Tell you a lot about the credibility when QS World is located in Midview City, which is zoned for industrial use (office space is commercial use; URA, please take note): http://www.qs-asia.com/main/index.php/contact
Used to operate from a rented house in Soo Chow Estate!!
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