Raise your game: 20 inexpensive ways to rise in the rankings – Times Higher Education

The rankings race is on, and the competition is expanding all the time: universities around the world are upping the ante and learning how to play the ratings game. If we have reservations about being part of this dirty business, don’t worry: we are in good company. The University of California is arguably one of the best public university systems in the world (although the current cuts are taking their toll). The success of UC is often attributed to its former President, Clark Kerr, a distinguished economist. When Clark Kerr was Chancellor of Berkeley in the 1950s, he used rankings to motivate change. Kerr’s yearning was to overtake Harvard, Yale and Princeton, a desire that was eventually met in 1964, when the American Council of Education placed Berkeley at number 1. The only difference between the race in the 1960s and the race today is that it is now happening everywhere.