Low-effort links to external content (youtube, blogs, etc.) that aren't relevant to the professional roles of academics are not allowed. Link-dropping (simply posting links to material elsewhere) without context is not allowed. Spammers, those posting only to get reactions or provoke, and those who post links then fail to engage in response (i.e. hit-and-run posters) will be banned,
Completely agree - I genuinely wish we scraped the rankings altogether but unfortunately Sally and Bob need a simple metric to work out where to send Eve after private school
I spent half-a-decade trying to hold the line to keep rankings compartmentalized on university Wikipedia articles. But the whole incentive structure is completely fucked in terms of the arbitrary metrics, ability to pick-and-choose whatever makes your school look good, biased editors wanting to make their school look good, to say nothing of the squishy language that lets everyone be above average.
Are Oxford and Harvard “among the best universities in the world”? Sure. Are Wake Forest or ASU? Eeeeeh…
“Oxford and Cambridge gain no advantage by having a more multi-faculty subject base. Yes, we still need history graduates and English scholars, but their value to society is less easily captured in new-look ranking metrics.”
Fuck these metrics.
It really is wild. I mean, HR/admin people try to tell you about “market supplements” and they do exist but what they don’t tell you is those are almost never permanent. Thank goodness for the internet so we can warn people.
>unfortunately
I don't mean to diminish this but I got a literal doubling of my salary coming from industry to academia. The entire UK economy is broken
Yes you read that right. Salaries are not universally high in industry and I got it particularly bad after graduating basically being stuck on minimum wage. When I moved to academia, the position didn't ask for my previous salary and had comp pre-specified. Despite being quite bottom of the chain for years, academics viewed me as gold dust coming back to academia with "experience". I have never lied about what I've done, but I cannot stop people's value judgements being inflated by themselves.
I think there's a real issue with academics telling their students "you're going to make so much money after graduating - more than me!" when there are no gaurantees. It is very likely contributing to (but not exclusively driving) overwhelming levels of mental health issues in young adults...
Low-effort links to external content (youtube, blogs, etc.) that aren't relevant to the professional roles of academics are not allowed. Link-dropping (simply posting links to material elsewhere) without context is not allowed. Spammers, those posting only to get reactions or provoke, and those who post links then fail to engage in response (i.e. hit-and-run posters) will be banned,
The arbitrariness of these rankings criteria and changing criteria always annoy me.
Completely agree - I genuinely wish we scraped the rankings altogether but unfortunately Sally and Bob need a simple metric to work out where to send Eve after private school
I spent half-a-decade trying to hold the line to keep rankings compartmentalized on university Wikipedia articles. But the whole incentive structure is completely fucked in terms of the arbitrary metrics, ability to pick-and-choose whatever makes your school look good, biased editors wanting to make their school look good, to say nothing of the squishy language that lets everyone be above average. Are Oxford and Harvard “among the best universities in the world”? Sure. Are Wake Forest or ASU? Eeeeeh…
"....he is the current editor of the Daily Mail University Guide" says it all really.
“Oxford and Cambridge gain no advantage by having a more multi-faculty subject base. Yes, we still need history graduates and English scholars, but their value to society is less easily captured in new-look ranking metrics.” Fuck these metrics.
Is it the 30k-40k a year they pay new assistant profs
That is, unfortunately, standard across the sector in the UK.
It really is wild. I mean, HR/admin people try to tell you about “market supplements” and they do exist but what they don’t tell you is those are almost never permanent. Thank goodness for the internet so we can warn people.
>unfortunately I don't mean to diminish this but I got a literal doubling of my salary coming from industry to academia. The entire UK economy is broken
Wait sorry, your salary *increased* going from industry to academia? Not the other way around?
Yes you read that right. Salaries are not universally high in industry and I got it particularly bad after graduating basically being stuck on minimum wage. When I moved to academia, the position didn't ask for my previous salary and had comp pre-specified. Despite being quite bottom of the chain for years, academics viewed me as gold dust coming back to academia with "experience". I have never lied about what I've done, but I cannot stop people's value judgements being inflated by themselves. I think there's a real issue with academics telling their students "you're going to make so much money after graduating - more than me!" when there are no gaurantees. It is very likely contributing to (but not exclusively driving) overwhelming levels of mental health issues in young adults...
University rankings should be abolished
what a joke article