世界前十大学如何炼成？

文/肖恩·科赫兰 译/周忠花

世界前十大学如何炼成？

文/肖恩·科赫兰 译/周忠花

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is in fi rst place in the latest league table1league table 名次表，排名表。of the world’s best universities.

[2] It’s the fi fth year in a row that the US university, famous for its science and technology research, has been top of the QS World University Rankings2由英国教育组织Quacquarelli Symonds所发表的年度世界大学排名。.

[3] Stanford University is in second place, followed by Harvard University,the world’s wealthiest university.

[4] Behind these in fourth place is University of Cambridge, followed by California Institute of Technology(Caltech), another science-based university.

[5] With King’s College London in 16th place, it means that Britain has five institutions in the top 20. Edinburgh University is 19th and there are two Swiss institutions, ETH Zurich and Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, in this top tier.

[6] But US universities are still in the majority, taking 11 of the places in the top 20.

[7] Even though some university leaders might be sceptical3sceptical怀疑的。about such rankings, they will all be sharply4sharply鲜明地；明显地。aware of their signi fi cance.

Mike Nicholson, Oxford University’s head of admissions, says: “It’s fair to say that it would be a foolish university that did not pay close attention to how league tables are constructed.”

[8] Rankings have become an inescapable5inescapable不可避免的，不能忽视的。part of the reputation and brand image of universities, helping them to attract students, staff and research investment.

No university website is complete without the claim to be in the top 100 for something or other.

How to be top

[9] But what is perhaps more surprising is that they are a relatively recent arrival on the higher education landscape.

[10] This is only the twelfth year of the QS rankings and the earliest global league table, the Academic Ranking of World Universities6世界大学学术排名为中国国家级研究项目，由中国政府授权上海交通大学世界一流大学研究中心根据研究结果每年发布一次。, produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, was fi rst published in 2003.

[11] They have risen alongside the globalisation of higher education and the sharing of information online.

[12] But how does a university get to the top of the rankings? And why does such a small group of institutions seem to have an iron grip7iron grip牢牢控制。on the top places?

[13] The biggest single factor in the QS rankings is academic reputation.This is calculated by surveying more than 60,000 academics around the world about their opinion on the merits of institutions other than their own.

Ben Sowter, managing director of the QS, says this means that universities with an established name and a strong brand are likely to do better.

[14] The next biggest factor—“citations per faculty”—looks at the strength of research in universities, calculated in terms of the number of times research work is cited by other researchers.

[15] The ratio of academic staff to students represents another big chunk8chunk 〈非正式〉相当大的量。of how the rankings are decided.

Big brands

[16] These three elements, reputation, research citations and staff ratios,account for four-fifths of the rankings.And there are also marks for being more international, in terms of academic staff and students.

[17] As a template for success, it means that the winners are likely to be large, prestigious, research-intensive universities, with strong science departments and lots of international collaborations.

[18] Is that a fair way to rank universities? It makes no reference to the quality of teaching or the abilities of students?

“We don’t take an exhaustive9exhaustive详尽的；彻底的。view of what universities are doing,” says Mr Sowter. “It’s always going to be a blunt instrument,” which he says is both the strength and weakness of such lists.

Immigration points

[19] The overall effect of a decade of such league tables has been beneficial,Mr Sowter argues. It has made universities take a closer look at themselves to see how they compared with rivals.

[20] But the creation of such a ranking has a dynamic10dynamic推动变化的力量。of its own—and Mr Sowter says there have been unintended consequences.

“Some fixate on it too closely,” he says. Improving their ranking position has been written into the mission statements of some universities.

[21] It has also taken on a quasiofficial status. Denmark’s immigration system gives extra points to graduate applicants according to how high their university is ranked.

[22] The pressure to get up the ladder has also pushed some universities into trying to bend the rules, says Mr Sowter, with incorrect data being submitted.

Multi-ranking

[23] Philip Altbach, director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, cautions on what is actually being measured. Should non-research universities be compared in rankings designed for research-intensive universities?

[24] An attempt to create a different type of university comparison was launched in 2014 by the European Union, with the U-Multirank project11多维度全球大学排名由欧盟发起，在五个维度——科研水平、教学质量、国际化程度、知识转化成果（与企业合作和创业）和地区建设参与度上对各机构进行比较，可提供其整体排名以及在某具体领域上的排名。.

[25] This puts less emphasis on reputation and allows students to select their own criteria to make comparisons.

[26] The idea is that a student wanting to fi nd an undergraduate arts course isn’t really going to learn much from rankings driven by international science research projects.

[27] There could be another entirely different way of comparing universities on the horizon.

[28] Andreas Schleicher, the OECD12=Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development经济合作与发展组织，简称经合组织。’s director of education, who has pioneered Pisa13=Program for International Student Assessment,一项由经合组织统筹的学生能力国际评估计划。主要对接近完成基础教育的15岁学生进行评估，测试学生们能否掌握参与社会所需要的知识与技能。tests at school level, wants to begin comparisons in higher education. He says there is a public demand for assessing the quality of universities.

But rather than looking at what goes into universities—such as money, staff and facilities—he wants to find out more about the output in the form of what students are learning.

[29] It’s not dif fi cult to see the limitations of university rankings. They measure the attributes14attribute属性，特性。of the university rather than its students. They produce a list dominated by a certain of type of institution. Small, specialist, arts-based colleges are going to suffer regardless of their quality.

[30] Those that focus on teaching rather than research will not be as recognised. The emphasis on reputation will reinforce the advantage of those that are already famous. And the top tier of these global rankings is exclusively filled with English-speaking universities.

[31] But such lists still exert155 exert施加；运用。an undeniable166 undeniable不可否认的；确凿的。, attention-grabbing appeal.

“The fact that people argue about league tables is a trigger17trigger（尤指引发不良反应或发展的）起因。for change,”says Mr Sowter. ■

英国教育机构QS最新发布的世界大学排名显示，麻省理工学院位列第一。

[2]这已经是这所素以科研见长的美国高校连续五年蝉联榜首了。

[3]斯坦福大学位列第二，世界上最富有的大学哈佛大学紧随其后。

[4]排名第四的是剑桥大学，而另一所以理科为主的大学加州理工学院则位居第五。

[5]英国在世界排名前20的大学中共占据5席，包括名列第16名的伦敦国王学院和第19名的爱丁堡大学。瑞士同样谋得两席，分别是苏黎世联邦理工学院和洛桑联邦理工学院。

[6]但是美国的大学仍属多数，前20名中占据了11席。

[7]尽管一些高校领导会对这些名次心存怀疑，他们也清楚地意识到这些排名的意义所在。

牛津大学招生办主任迈克·尼科尔森说：“于高校而言，不去密切关注大学排行榜的制定标准实非明智之举。”

[8]学校排名已固化为高校知名度和品牌形象的一部分，领先的排名有助于吸引生源、师资和科研资金投入。

若不声称本校是某领域的百强，哪家学校的网站都谈不上完整。

如何跻身榜单

[9]更令人惊讶的是，大学排名是高等教育界近些年才出现的新生事物。

[10] QS世界大学排名榜仅有12年历史，而最早的全球大学排行榜是由中国上海交通大学发布的世界大学学术排名，首次发布于2003年。

[11]世界大学排行榜是随着高等教育全球化和网络信息分享的发展应运而生的。

[12]但是一所大学究竟怎样才能位居前列呢？为什么少数学校似乎一直都能稳坐江山？

[13]在QS世界大学排名中最为关键的因素在于学术声望。针对这一项指标，全球六万多名学者将会接受调查，对排除自身所在学校的其他高校做出评价，由此来计算不同大学的声誉指数。

“这意味着有强大品牌影响力的名校更容易上榜。”QS机构的常务董事本·索特说。

[14]其次颇为重要的因素是 “单位教职的论文引用数”，即通过统计高校研究成果被其他学者引用的次数来反映高校的科研水平。

[15]与此同时，教师与学生的比例也会从很大程度上影响大学的排名。

优势品牌

[16]学术声望、论文引用数和师生比例，这三大因素在评定排名时占了80%的比重。除此之外，师资队伍和学生群体的国际化程度高也有加分。

[17]分析来看，名列前茅的都是规模庞大、享有盛誉的研究型高校。它们普遍拥有实力雄厚的科研院系和数量众多的境外合作单位。

[18]这样的排名方式公平吗？完全不考虑教学质量和学生素质吗？

“我们不对高校作全面考核。”索特先生说，“一向使用这种直截了当的评估手段。”他说这既是这类排行榜的优势，也是它们的劣势。

移民加分项

[19]索特先生认为，这十年来大学排行榜的发布整体而言是有益的，它使各高校进一步认清自己与竞争院校的差别。

[20]这项排名的产生本身带有一种推动变革的力量，而且在索特先生看来，它已经带来了一些意料之外的影响。

“有些高校太注重排名了,甚至将提升学校的排名写入了他们的办学宗旨。”索特先生说。

[21]目前，这样的世界大学排名已经成为了一种半官方的认证。例如，丹麦移民系统会根据研究生学历的移民申请人的毕业院校排名酌情给予加分。

[22]索特先生说，迫于晋升名次的压力，有些大学甚至试图打破规矩，提交虚假数据。

多标准排名

[23]波士顿学院国际高等教育中心主任菲利普·阿尔特巴克提醒人们关注排行榜所评估的内容。以研究型高校的标准来评估非研究型高校究竟是否合适？

[24] 2014年，欧盟曾推出多维度全球大学排名以打造一种全新的大学评价方式。

[25]在这一全新的排名中，学术声望所占比重大大降低，学生可以按照自己的标准作比较。

[26]这种设计的出发点在于，一个想找到人文类本科课程的学生根本难以从侧重国际科研项目的排行榜中获取有价值的信息。

[27]或许不久的将来还会出现另一种与以往评估方式截然不同的大学排行榜。

[28]经合组织教育委员会主任安德烈亚斯·施莱克尔曾率先发起国际学生评估项目，旨在评测各国的基础教育，现在，他将目光投向了高等教育。他表示公众希望能够以某种方式评估高校质量。

但是施莱克尔先生并没有关注大学在经费、师资和设备等方面的投入，而更注重大学的产出，即学生在学些什么。

[29]事实上，高校排行榜的局限性显而易见。评比过程中并没有考虑学生的因素，而仅仅关注了学校的各项特征。因此，某些特定类型的学府便总是能上榜。而那些规模不大、独具特色、尤擅文科的大学则不管水平高低都只能对着排行榜望洋兴叹。

[30]同样，那些较之科研更侧重教学的高校也得不到认可。注重学校声望的大学排名会进一步加强名校的优势，而在这些世界排名中，名列前茅的毫无例外都是用英语授课的大学。

[31]但不可否认的是，这样的大学排名依然能够吸人眼球。

索特先生表示，“人们对大学排名的争议正是其寻求改变的契机。” □

（译者曾获第五届“《英语世界》杯”翻译大赛优秀奖）

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