Received an invitation to respond to the @timeshighered academic reputation survey. There is no way anyone can meaningfully identify the best teaching and research universities in their subject area. But still universities behave as if this nonsense is meaningful. It's shameful.

Universities' acceptance of the @timeshighered academic reputation survey & rankings is shameful because universities are supposed to look after knowledge. Promoting empty marketing surveys & rankings as if they produce valid knowledge undermines HE's central purpose.

The @timeshighered academic reputation survey gives the game away by telling respondents, they can 'vote' for their own institution. A popularity contest dressed up as a serious evaluation. See 'Transforming University Education. A Manifesto' for more. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/transforming-university-education-9781350157231/

Am I am taking rankings too seriously? If our commitment to knowledge doesn't stop universities from promoting measures of their quality that we know to be fatally flawed then what is that commitment worth? Why would those misled by those measures trust universities?