For many in higher education, good performance is measured in term of reputation, either for a department as a whole or for individuals. Often this is informal (and therefore almost entirely beyond the capacity of a governing board to deal with), but in the area of research it may be based on specific indicators such as research grant income (although this is very discipline specific), the citation of papers, patents, and so on. However, for teaching reputational indicators of performance are much weaker, although boards should receive QAA and other quality reports, or summaries of them.
It is because of such difficulties that 'league tables' seem to hold initial attractions for some governors, but they are fraught with difficulties as serious measures of performance. Newspaper league tables are assumed by many outsiders to higher education to be a fair picture of comparative performance. In fact they can be extremely misleading and use different methodologies. The main UK league tables are produced by the Times, the Guardian and the Independent. The main international tables followed in the UK are the Academic Rankings of World Universities (ARWU) from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the new Times Higher Education rankings developed after extensive consultation with the sector.
Without very close analysis governors should take care in thinking of league table position as a performance indicator, because:
However, league tables are here to stay - no matter how misleading - because they sell newspapers. Therefore, despite methodological concerns, institutions know that the general public in the UK and overseas gives considerable credence to league table rankings. Governors will therefore wish to know where their own institution appears on a list and what the reasons are for any 'poor' scores. If these reasons are the result of an alternative emphasis in the strategies that their institution has adopted, governors should not be concerned.
The introduction of increased student fees in England adds a further dimension to the power of league tables as a factor in influencing student - and parental - choice of institution.
A report from the European Universities Association Global University Rankings and their Impact discusses the value and effect of international league tables.