nowEurope

Preamble 1: Let’s make a complex matter simple. Efficient technology transfer depends on efficient partners, i.e. good universities and good companies.

Preamble 2: Austria’s national economy is no. 3 or 4 within the European Union, the country is one of Europe’s strongest exporters, one of CEE’s biggest investors, no. 1 in e-Government etc.

I am making these statements not to show off but to investigate a striking contradiction which has been bothering me for years. When it comes to international rankings which are related to high tech, science, education and similar issues, Austria’s ranking has regularly been as bad as can be.

Recently The Times Higher Education Supplement published the 2008 university rankings, where the only Austrian institution ranked within the top 200, the University of Vienna, fell back from Rank 85 in 2007 to 115 in 2008. The top 10 are Harvard, Yale University, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, California Institute of Technology, Imperial College London, University College London, University of Chicago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

I certainly don’t doubt that the top 10 are top, although I have heard from Americans that e.g. Harvard graduates must be good, even if they aren’t, otherwise nobody would spend a fortune to send their children there. But let’s assume that they are good.

On the other hand I definitely doubt that schools like Vienna’s University of Technology or Masaryk University in Brno (not listed) are that bad.

I investigated a bit into the polling and evaluation criteria and found out that most of the polling happens via online survey. The researcher, a “QS Quacquarelli Symonds is the leading global career and education network”, says they carefully selected and weighed the addressees from various specialized databases etc., but of course it strikes that the top 10 are all in Anglo Saxon countries.

One of the questions in the questionnaire directed to academic pollers asks “which universities do you know” or so, before it offers drop down tables listing the universities. Now I suspect that most of the pollers are from North America as the researcher is from there. No wonder the US has the longest list of schools, whereas Austria counts only five entries, the Czech Republic four and Hungary two…

Pollers are supposed to state the region they come from. One is America, another Europe, Middle East and Africa, the third South East Asia. Africans, if they have the money, go to English or French universities, a tradition dating back to colonial times. Which places do you think they vote for?

Contrary to the bigger countries, including selections such as „Spain & Portugal“, there are selections such as „Europe South & Central” and “Europe North”. Whereas in the business school section Vienna’s University of Economy is the last entry in “Europe North”, Polish and Czech Schools are in „Europe South & Central” (!). The other Austrian business schools (Donau Universität and IMADEC) are not listed.

They ask businesses among other things to state where they would recruit graduates in arts & humanities. Not a single arts school from Austria is listed although the Vienna University of Performing Arts is one of the best worldwide and one of the biggest in Europe. They also ask that for medicine, but there is not a single Medical University in Austria to be found in the lists.

Last not least I made a very interesting discovery: The renowned Belgian University of Leuven is listed twice, once with its Dutch and once with its French name, ranked as no. 72 and 116 respectively….

There is a similar ranking by Shanghai University. There, Austria has been dumped as well. There are many more rankings on high tech and there would be a lot more to tell. But I don’t want to bore you.

My very naïve question is: How do we earn our money if our universities are so bad? Agriculture and skiing wouldn’t suffice. There must be a strong national Mafia running printing machines.

Discuss!