Ruth’s Rankings 54: Academic freedom and its relationship to university rankings

By Ruth A. Pagell*

 

(1 Mar 2023) This was supposed to be a brief update, but academic freedom took on a life of its own. This article is in three parts:

1. Academic freedom with a review of New Threats to Academic Freedom in Asia and indexes measuring freedoms, with Appendix A.
2. Updates to U.S. News Global, including professional school controversies, NTU Rankings, Round University Rankings (RUR), and THE World rankings, and exploring the relationship between academic freedom and university rankings, in Appendix B
3. Update: Internet Librarian 2022 Conference from your on-the-scene reporter

 

Q: Should university rankings “turn a blind eye to varying levers of academic freedom?” (Kinzelbach, Saliba, & Spannagel)

Q:  What one Asian country is listed in a world top 10 index? (Appendix A)

Q:  What East Asian country is in the top quartile for all five rankings? (Appendix B).

Q: Which index ranks internet freedom? (Appendix C)

 

Part 1: Academic Freedom: New Threats to Academic Freedom in Asia and indexes measuring freedoms.

 

While I was still in library school, I convinced my children’s school librarian to return books she’d placed in a locked room with locked shelves to the open library. She felt the subjects were inappropriate. When I arrived in Singapore, I returned CDs that were in a locked cabinet to open shelves. We began purchasing unredacted CDs, even if it meant interacting with the Censorship Board.

 

A recent article in World University News criticised academic freedom in Singapore (George, Chong, & Ang). The article recommended a new book, New Threats in Academic Freedom in Asia (Gueorguiev) and the “Academic Freedom in Singapore Report” (AcademiaSG). I reached out to Singaporean friends with whom I had discussed academic freedom, and one author of the article, to remind myself of discussions from ten years ago and to verify the situation today. A librarian at one of Singapore’s premier universities replied that “We have certainly tried to collect in a way that honours the principles of freedom of expression but within the Singapore context”.

 

Listed below are the book’s chapters. See Appendix A for brief annotations, links for the chapters, and related readings.

• Introduction: Progress under threat: Academic freedom in Asia (Gueorguiev)
• Chapter 1: Academic Freedom in Asia 1900-2021 (Kinzelbach)
• Chapter 2: Contesting academic freedom in Japan (Kingston)
• Chapter 3: The state of academic freedom in Singapore’s world-beating universities (George, Chong, and Ang)
• Chapter 4: Academic freedom in China: An empirical inquiry through the lens of student informants (Jiang)
• Chapter 5 – In the name of the nation: Restrictions on academic freedom in contemporary Indonesia higher education (Nugroho)
• Afterward – Canary in a coal mine (Thornton)

 

The book references the Academic Freedom index (AFi). AFi referenced Freedom House which was new to me. I previously covered freedom rankings in RR 21 (2016) and in RR 48 Part 2 (2021). Since AFi is featured in the book, I am using it as the point of reference for other rankings as shown in Appendix A. Listed below are the five indexes that are covered.

 

Table 54. 1:  Five freedom Indexes

NAME	Company	Country of Origin	# 1 in the world	#1 in East Asia
Academic Freedom index	V-Dem	Germany	Germany	Nepal
Human Freedom Index	Cato & Fraser	US & Canada	Switzerland	Taiwan
Democracy Index	Economist Intelligence Unit	International	Norway	Taiwan
Global Freedom Scores	Freedom House	US	Norway	Japan
World Press Freedom Indicators	Reporters without Borders	France with worldwide support	Norway	Bhutan

 

Appendix A has chapter annotations, links for chapters, and links for other relevant resources. It also ranks the top 10 countries in the world and in East Asia in the five indexes. Germany, Switzerland, and Norway are first in the World, and Nepal, Taiwan, Japan. and Bhutan lead the East Asia group. See Appendix C for rankings for all East Asia countries.

 

PART 2 – Year end rankings

 

Q: Academic freedom is calculated at a country level. What is its relationship to university rankings?

Instead of doing a year-on-year comparison, this update maps universities in the world and East Asia to their countries’ freedom scores in four rankings released in the last quarter of 2022. There is little obvious change in the rankings.

 

The rankings include:

• US News Global 2022-2023 Best Global University Rankings; 2165 institutions in 90 countries; number one – Harvard; top in Asia, Tsinghua (23); First RR article (May 2015); first edition with 500 universities; no backfiles available.
• NTU World University Rankings (Taiwan): Performance ranking of scientific papers for world universities (2022); 1,016 institutions; number one Harvard; top in Asia, National University of Singapore (25); first article: RR 6 Dec 2014; First online 2007: 469 universities; Number one Harvard; top Asia U Tokyo 13.
• THE World University Rankings 2023 (UK); 1,799 ranked; 2,345 listed; number one Oxford; top in Asia, Tsinghua (16); first RR article: 26 Nov 2014; First online from 2011: 200 universities; number one Harvard; first Asia, Hong Kong University 21
• Round University Ranking (Georgia, formerly Moscow); 1,100 ranked and rated; 85 countries; number one California Institute of Technology (Caltech); top in Asia, Peking University(11); First article: RR 47 Part 2 (12 Aug 2021); First online from 2010; 567 universities; number one Harvard; top in Asia Tokyo Institute of Technology 29. RUR uses the same reputation data as US News, with different results, for 800 universities.

 

In searching for a relationship between freedom and rankings, I looked at other variables such as population, GNI per capita, literacy, expenditures on R&D, and quality of life.

 

See Appendix B for the rankings of the top ten universities in the world and East Asia. The takeaway from this exercise is that academic freedom is not an obvious indicator of university rankings. Most rankings have bibliometric and/or reputation requirements for a university to be eligible for inclusion.

 

Changes ahead:  THE announced modifications for its next round of rankings in the areas of citations and international outlook, and the addition of knowledge transfer, introducing a patent metric used the THE’s impact rankings (Ross & Wong).

 

While not as relevant to my readers as THE changes, leading law and medical schools announced their withdrawal from US News specialty rankings. In response to the law school withdrawals, US News announced changes to the law school methodology (Associated Press). It is not known if changes will be incorporated into global rankings.

 

Part 3:  Internet Librarian 2022 – Live in Monterey California

 

In the last century, I was a regular speaker at conferences related to online searching and databases, sponsored by Information Today. My last US Information Today conference was in 1999. It was with mixed feelings that I agreed to attend in 2022. Would anyone, other than my co-presenter, Barbie Keiser, and Marydee Ojala, with whom I wrote reviews of IFLA for Access, even remember me?

 

The theme for the 2022 conference was “Community Impact: Digital strategies & partnerships”. The theme for my first conference in 1998 was “Nothing but the net”.

 

2022 was the first live session since 2019. Turnout was light, with under 500 total attendees. Five percent of the speakers were from outside North America, with two from UAE, one from Saudi Arabia, one for India, and one from the UK. There were fewer than ten exhibitors in 2022, reflecting the emphasis on the internet and not commercial databases. The program outline below lists the topics that were discussed, which included issues facing libraries and today’s current hot technologies.

 

The conference has a set format. Each day begins with informal breakfast chats with set topics such as “Transitioning to a Google workplace”, a keynote speaker, and four tracks with five presentations. The first keynote speaker, Azadeh Jamalian, talked about her company, the Giant Room, which designs learning platforms for children. It takes advantage of emerging educational technology. My favorite Keynote speaker, Christine Keung, talked about the California city of San Jose’s use of its open data to track the city’s equity. She shared tips for libraries to use their local data for positive impacts on their communities. It is not surprising that I liked the talk about data, and the audience appreciated the information she presented in a way that anyone could understand.

 

FORMAT FOR THE CONFERENCE WITH DAILY THEMES

DAY	KEYNOTE	TRACK A	TRACK B	TRACK C	TRACK D
Tuesday	Community Impact through Learning	Impacts on Information (Search)	Technology Impact on inclusion	Library Systems	Leadership Toolkit
Wednesday	Community Data for Impact	Impacts on Web Presence	Technology Impact on Community	Ideas that Impact	Learning from Leaders
Thursday	Conversation with Artist	Impacts on Community	Makerspaces & New Technologies	Ideas that Differ	Leading Healthy Teams & Communities

 

My role was a presentation on Sustainable Development Goals, with my colleague Barbie Keiser. It was not related to rankings. My article about the conference will be in Computers in Libraries (March 2023) with an emphasis on Search. Two presentations, one by Mary Ellen Bates and the other by Marydee Ojala and Amy Affelt, well-known names in the internet community, emphasized using the free internet as the resource for most queries, other than scholarly research. Gary Price, another long-timer, talked about infoDOCKET, a blog he does for the American Library Association and Association of Research Libraries, with tips and tools that anyone can use.

 

In addition to attending the sessions on Search and enjoying Monterey’s scenery, I attended sessions on the new technologies such as blockchain and using AI bots to answer reference questions.

 

Internet Librarian, 2022 Full Program https://internet-librarian.infotoday.com/2022/Program.aspx

 

CONCLUSION:

Readers beware! Academic freedom is fragile. Hong Kong’s universities continue to score well in rankings, while the number of current faculty and local students is dropping along with its AFi (Sharma). Indonesia, which places in one of the higher categories of freedom in AFi, has had changes in academic freedom based on changes in government. In December 2022 new measures were announced to restrict criticism of the government (Yamin).

 

Trends toward increased restrictions are prevalent in the US as well, with the governor of Florida at the forefront (AAUP). Other states are trying to enact laws that would restrict topics, especially those related to EDI (Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity) (Kelderman).

 

After examining many other country metrics from freedom to quality of life,  I could not answer my question about incorporating academic freedom into university rankings.  Current university rankings require a baseline bibliometrics or reputation score to even participate in rankings. Chinese universities continue to thrive and most Hong Kong rankings are holding steady, at least for the short term. In East Asia, Nepal, Mongolia and Bhutan all have high freedom scores, but they do not have the income or education systems to support research. The question I am able to  answer is “Does Academic Freedom matter in university rankings?”  The answer is no, not with the current methodologies.

 

Full Disclose: I chose to work in a country that I knew did not have the level of academic freedom to which I was accustomed. In exchange, I had the human and financial resources to create a 21^st century western style library adapted to an Asian environment.

 

Which would you choose? Academic freedom or research resources?

 

RESOURCES

AAUP (26 Jan 2023) Special committee to report on academic freedom in Florida, https://www.aaup.org/news/special-committee-report-academic-freedom-florida

AcademiaSG. (2021). Academic Freedom in Singapore: Survey Report.
Singapore: AcademiaSG. Retrieved from: https://www.academia.sg/academic-views/rankings-and-academic-freedom/  and  https://www.academia.sg/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Academic-Freedom-Survey-Aug-2021.pdf (You may have to cut and past this URL and be patient while it loads.)

Associated Press (3 Jan 2023). US News to change ranking system after law schools’ boycott, https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2023-01-03/us-news-to-change-ranking-system-after-law-schools-boycott

George, C., Chong J.I., & Ang, Shannon. (3 Dec 2022). Academic freedom deficit comes at a cost to society, University World News, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20221130125639733

Gueorguiew, D. ed. (May 2022). New Threats to Academic Freedom in Asia,  (Association for Asian Studies) open access version at  https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/new-threats-to-academic-freedom/

Kelderman, E. (28 Jan 2023). The plan to dismantle DEI: Conservatives take on illiberal bureaucracy. Chronicle for Higher Education, sign up to read for free at https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-plan-to-dismantle-dei

Kinzelbach, K., Saliba, I. & Spannagel, J. (7 Dec 2021). Global data on the freedom indispensable for scientific research: towards a reconciliation of academic reputation and academic freedom. International Journal of Human Rights, v26 (10), https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13642987.2021.1998000

NOTE: Part of special issue of Academic freedom and internationalisation. Issue 26,10, Academic freedom and internationisation is available at https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/fjhr20/26/10?nav=tocList

Popović, M (7 Feb 2023). “Rebuilding history, (re) building the nation  – no freedom for academics” CGHE, https://www.researchcghe.org/events/cghe-seminar/legislating-history-rebuilding-the-nation-no-freedom-for-academics/

Ross, D. & Wong, B. (19 Oct 2022). Rankings are changing: WUR 3.0 will be more robust and insightful,  https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/rankings-are-changing-wur-30-will-be-more-robust-and-insightful

NOTE:   To gain access to THE articles, having a free account is helpful.

Sharma Y. (24 Jan 2023). Exodus of university students and professors continues. University World News   https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230124150458875

Yamin, K. (15 Dec 2022). New criminal code: A threat to academic and other freedoms? University World News https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20221215070601968

Wikipedia(April 2022). List of sovereign states by research and development spending https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_research_and_development_spending

Author’s note:  I try to never use Wikipedia as a source but it was the only site I found that presented the data in an understandable table.

 

Ruth’s Rankings

RR 21 (October 2016). Flagship universities in Asia, https://librarylearningspace.com/ruths-rankings-21-flagship-universities-asia-bibliometrics-econometrics-social-indicators/

RR 48 Part 2 (31 Dec 2021). Country and company environmental rankings, https://librarylearningspace.com/ruths-rankings-48-part-2-country-and-company-environmental-rankings-add-new-sets-of-indicators-to-our-vocabulary/

 

See Addendum for updated Academic Freedom Rankings and their relationship to QS Sustainability rankings.

 

 

Ruth’s Rankings
A list of all Ruth’s Rankings and News Updates is here.

 

*Ruth A. Pagell is emeritus faculty librarian at Emory University. After working at Emory, she was the founding librarian of the Li Ka Shing Library at Singapore Management University and then adjunct faculty [teaching] in the Library and Information Science Program at the University of Hawaii. She has written and spoken extensively on various aspects of librarianship, including contributing articles to ACCESS – https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3238-9674