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Trinity College Dublin, Ireland’s oldest and highest ranked university, has been censured by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), for breaching the rules of its global ranking by running a campaign which they “clearly forbid”. Trinity, which along with other Irish universities has dropped down the rankings in recent years, launched an awareness campaign designed to ensure that its research is put in the spotlight and make sure key players are aware of upcoming surveys.

Ukraine has little to offer international students. The quality of education offered is low, there is endless red tape and corruption is rife. Over the past quarter century, the quality of education offered has dropped dramatically due not only to a lack of state funding and a consequent brain drain, but primarily to rampant endemic corruption. Failed structural reforms and institutional incapacity in higher education have left Ukrainian youth without any hope of receiving world-class education and have had a negative impact on international students as well.

Since his election in 2004, the Georgian president has set about reforming the endemically corrupt university system through drastic, but effective, measures. Reforms targeted both the admissions process as well as the quality of higher education itself.

An ITV documentary has investigated whether some schools are taking duplicitous measures to achieve top marks. The problem is said to have developed after league tables based on exam results were introduced in 1992, putting more pressure on schools to perform well. Schools can obtain more financial rewards if they feature highly in league tables, while the jobs of heads and teachers are at risk if a bad Ofsted inspection means the school goes into special measures.

A government-commissioned study of the placement of Norwegian universities in global rankings – in particular compared to other Nordic institutions – has concluded that even the top rankings are so based on subjective weightings of factors and on dubious data that they are useless as a basis for information if the goal is to improve higher education.

The Hauts-de-France Regional Council has set up the Participatory Budget for Upper Secondary Schools (BPL) to improve living and studying conditions for students in their schools. This project is part of a participatory democracy approach, in which it is the pupils themselves who are involved in the equipment and renovation projects for their lycée. 

Universities determined to rise up international rankings are increasingly "playing" the methodology, Shaun Curtis of the University of Exeter in the UK told the "Worldviews 2013" conference last week. One way is to seek support from colleagues in other institutions who are answering rankings questionnaires, and another is to game the data.