The evaluation of university ranking systems and a model proposal

Higher education is rapidly becoming massive, internationalizing, the demand for universities is increasing intensively, and in parallel with these developments, the number of higher education institutions is increasing. These developments have caused competition between universities in national and international settings, and a need for tools has emerged to meet the information needs of the stakeholders of higher education institutions. Today, a large part of this need is met by quality assurance tools and university ranking systems. There are many types of these systems, which have been subjected to intense criticism with their popularity and wide audience. In this thesis study, which was planned in a qualitative research design, the university ranking systems in question were evaluated and a model proposal was presented within the scope of the literature review and the results of this study. In addition to the document analysis on the indicators of national accreditation bodies and national ranking systems in different countries; in-depth interviews were conducted with local and foreign researchers, policy makers, system administrators working on ranking systems, quality commission members at different universities and the results of data analysis were presented in tables, discussed, and policy recommendations were presented for higher education institutions, systems, stakeholders, researchers and ranking system designers at the end of the study. According to the findings of the study, the logic and rationale of the ranking systems were mostly based on universities; compared to their strengths, many weak points that need improvement were identified, and opinions were expressed to compensate for them. The study also drew attention to the approaches to the use of ranking systems at the institutional and national level, questioned the general necessity of these systems, and gathered opinions to benefit from the systems in different countries and accreditation indicators for the development of the current systems. At the end of the study, a categorical and mixed model was proposed to increase the validity and reliability of ranking systems. It is expected that this study, which also draws attention to current problems related to systems, will contribute to the world higher education system, stakeholders, quality assurance and ranking systems.