Research On University Rankings From The Perspective Of Symbolic Power Theory ——Take The Four Major World University Rankings As An Example

At present,the reform of education evaluation has become the focus of the country and society.As a kind of quantitative evaluation,university rankings have had a great impact on a global scale.University rankings provide a certain reference for students and parents to choose schools,and to a certain extent alleviate the problem of information asymmetry between the public and colleges and universities.But with the popularity and generalization of university rankings,its negative impact has also grown.The quantitative indicators of university rankings have contributed to the tendency of colleges and universities to focus on quantity over quality,and the scientific research orientation of university rankings has exacerbated the tendency of colleges and universities to focus on scientific research and less on teaching.The government,universities and scholars have been aware and alert to a certain extent about the harm of ranking.However,the theoretical reflection on this issue is not deep and thorough enough,and there is still room for expansion.Therefore,it is necessary to study university rankings with the help of a new perspective.This research takes the current four popular world university rankings as the research object,and uses the symbolic power theory as the analytical tool to construct the research framework.Specifically,this study firstly uses the main literature to define related concepts such as university rankings,introduces the emergence and development of university rankings,and sorts out the research status of domestic and foreign scholars on the issue of university rankings.On this basis,the symbolic power theory is introduced to analyze the university ranking problem.First of all,by constructing the field of university ranking and comparing and analyzing the index system of university ranking,it is found that the essence of university ranking is to measure universities with extremely rich and complex connotations by condensed symbols,and to make the meaning represented by these symbols obtain social identify.However,the university rankings represent the scientific research level of the university by the number of papers published and citations,and the teaching level of the university by the number of students and teachers,which has obvious limitations.Secondly,by comparing the weights of university ranking indicators,it is found that the quantitative indicators of university rankings account for a large proportion.However,the use of absolute and relative quantitative indicators in quantitative indicators is confusing,and the data sources and calculation processes of quantitative indicators are also unreasonable..Finally,this study points out that the competition of universities for rankings is actually a competition for the symbolic capital represented by university rankings.The universities with the top rankings are more likely to obtain high-quality students and financial resources.Following this,this study analyzes the role and risks of university rankings.The convenient and intuitive characteristics of university rankings bring certain reference values to various users.However,we must also be alert to the symbolic anxiety and cultural identity brought about by university rankings.In order to eliminate the negative impact of university rankings,the government should regulate the university ranking industry,and the ranking agencies should also optimize the indicators,methods and results announcement methods.We should also go beyond rankings,not just rankings.All types of subjects should change their view on the quality of higher education,and colleges and universities should also pay attention to their own heritage and traditions,rationally locate and develop rationally.