In 2013, University College Cork, in Ireland, asked its faculty members to encourage people familiar with the university to register to vote in the survey of universities conducted by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), one of the major producers of international higher ed rankings. Many people at the time said recruiting people to vote would make the reputation reviews scientifically invalid, since the voting pool could be influenced by having more judges loyal to or familiar with one university than others. QS responded by banning universities from recruiting people to vote in its rankings surveys and suspending a system in which people could just sign up to be reviewers. This year, Trinity College Dublin sent out letters to academics and others -- some of which were forwarded by recipients to Inside Higher Ed -- that appear to be encouraging people to register to volunteer to vote in QS rankings. Those who forwarded the letters, who asked for anonymity, said that they viewed them as violating the QS rules and that the letters seemed especially surprising coming from Trinity College Dublin, given that it is the highest-ranked institution in Ireland.

March 21, 2016 ・ From Inside Higher Ed