positioning universities
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The positioning of universities
Jean Thves, Michel Zitt, Ghislaine Filliatreau
Observatoire des Sciences et des Techniques (OST)
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1. Positioning indicators vs Ranking and/or
evaluation
2. OEU project
3. Bibliometrics as a tool for positioninguniversities
4. To conclude
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Positioning the universities vs ranking/evaluating them.
Ranking and/or evaluation approach: notionof effectiveness of the institution (theinstitution as itself : one shot )
Positioning approach: notion of measuring
its position within a given environment(the institution as a strategic actor) andalong a trajectory
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Positioning indicators : overall frame
In this rationale, the indicators aim at characterisingthe elements of the national innovation system,considering it is made of differentiated, autonomous andstrategic agents (Barr, 2005)
firstly, the position of the actors () are as
important as formal inputs and outputs for theirperfomance ; secondly, the benchmark with auniversal production function () is replaced by the ideaof helping individual actors to position themselves in a
complex and fragmented institutional space (Lepori,Barr, Filliatreau, 2007)
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Positioning indicators : overall frame
characterising the elements of the national
innovation system
Applied to universities : universities are a
component of the research system in achanging context (triple helix context(Leydesdorff & Etzkowitz) mode 2 of
research context (Gibbons et al.).
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Differentiated, autonomous, strategic agents
Applied to universities, as autonomous and strategic agents , universities need toolsto know itself, its environment in order to adapt to new research modes, researchfunding opportunities etc
The positioning indicator frame supposes also a trajectory within the environment
considered.
Three leverages for autonomy for research entities (Felt et al.) :
the higher education system environment vis--vis its head ministry institution(here ministries)
The university vis--vis other universities
The components of the universities themselves
The positioning approach aims at describing these 3 levels.
Positioning indicators : overall frame
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position themselves in a complex and fragmented institutional space
Universities need to position themselves (to know at which interactions it is) inorder to adapt its responses vis--vis :
Research actors (other institutions) / policy makers (for new regulations,
new rules, new funding opportunities) Funding sources : region / nation / EU / private
Human resources (staff) and students (which are a source of money (director indirect), a source of knowledge producers and which can become a
label (if international visibility)
Positioning indicators : overall frame
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Positioning versus Ranking or Evaluation
Universities, in order to know if they are efficient are often ranked
(or evaluated for funding rate (ex: RAE or the Australianexperience (see Butler))
Differences between ranking focus and positioning focus could be
analysed through the answers of three main questions regarding the measurement of universities:
Who makes the indicators ?
Who uses/needs indicators ? What are the expected effects of the indicators?
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Positioning versus Ranking or Evaluation
Until now, rankings (see Shangha ranking) are
made to evaluate the results of theuniversities.
Answers of questions are :
Who makes : clients / competitor / ministries forfunding
Who uses : clients , i.e. students, companies,funders/ uses depend on results
What are the effect : universities try to do better (ex. Shangha) i.e. adapt to the criteria (ex. evaluationprocess RAE or Autralian univ (Butler 2003) ;universities use their good rank for attractivity
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Positioning versus Ranking or Evaluation
Positioning indicators have the ambition to better
understand the organization of the overallsystem and could be used by the measured actors for strategic management
Answers of questions are : Who makes : researchers, universities themselves,
policy makers (as principals)
Who uses : same / uses independant of results What are the effect : strategic analysis of results /
policy making / research steering / enhancedunderstanding of institution, system
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The OEU : a PRIME project that aimed at investigating theoverall positioning of the universities
The Observatory of the European University (OEU) has elaborated amatrix through which 5 main dimensions (F, HR, AO, TM and Gov.)
were analysed through the filter of 5 transversal issues : autonomy,strategic capabilities, attractiveness, differentiation profile andterritorial embedding
The approach is a strategic one :
Work has been done with the university research managers andPRIME researchers so as to build both a better knowledge of highereducation environment (for the researchers) AND new tools for
analysing their institution (for the University research managers)
This double approach is in line with the positioning focus
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Funding * autonomy
Indicators to be built have to answer to these questions
Interest for researchers and research managers, whateverthe answer isthere are no good or bad result but a
better understanding of the university budget
FUNDING
OMY
KQ1.1
What is the degree of freedom the government enjoys in the use of government funding?
How significant is the portion of non-governmental funding that goes to research?
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The examples of bibliometric indicators.
- Bibliometrics is the quantitative study of the community interactions, basedon the contents of publication outputs that are key elements in the real life of
scientific communities.
- Bibliometrics is all the more practicable than outputs are codified:
- - patents, strong codification by law
- - publications in peer-reviewed journals: quasi-norms in presentation, rhethorics,references
- - other types of documents, however with less strong codification, may beexploited: articles in lower-standard journals, reports,
- - non-standard documents: websites especially academic
- The level of information is not warranted by the level of codification(patents!)
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Bibliometrics as a tool for positioninguniversities
The Tool
Thomson (ISI) databases or more recently Scopus combine:
- multidisciplinary coverage of scientific literature (including selection criteria for journalsfor Thomson)
- information on all authors and especially all affiliations
- information on cited references
Weaknesses:
- coverage of social and humanities, adding to different modes of communication in thosedisciplines (books, conferences)
- in comparison with specialized databases, lack of controlled vocabulary and of
elaborated classification scheme, replaced by proxies (Thomson: classification ofjournals)
- and, whatever the database, the unification problem ../..
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The tool is an image of the activity of researcherswithin universities
- 1. Activity of scientists in a university (a lab) is multidimensional, andinvolves several types of customers for several outputs (see compass
card of research , CSI-Mines) many of them in written form with variouslevels of codification.
- - education: courses and material for students (Mission I)
- - publication/commmunication for academic colleagues and others (Mission II)
- - patents and expertise for industry
- - publications, reports and expertise for government- - id for non government bodies e.g. associations of patients
- - public information, citizens awareness
- 2. Activity of scientists is conducted within a community of colleagues
- - intervening at all stages of the publication cycle (getting funds, collaborate,discussing article, submitting, be read, be cited)
- - intervening in other aspects of self-organisation of communities (career, etc.)
- (see Latour, Wouters)
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Examples of bibliometric indicators and
their interpretation in terms of positioning the university :
Three main categories of indicators Power (nb of pub) Performance (nb of cit)
Positioning (co-pub) : position of the actor in aparticular network (collaborative network (ratio andspectrum of partnerships), disciplinary network)
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More is better Power (size-dep) Output Volumes or market
shares of pub.
Id. for cit (visibility)
Performance (size-
indep)
Throughput Productivity, pub
and cit, individ. HI,
global DEA perf
bibliometric perf. Impact (cit.),relative impact &
akin measures
What is better? Descriptive Specialization/
variety
Network position(e.g. collab.)
Specialization
Collab. Ratios
PatternsCentrality,
Betweenness
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The coverage issue of the database
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Biologie
fondamentale19,3
Mathmatiques
3,7
Sciences de
l'univers
7,5
Sciences pour
l'ingnieur
14,9
Physique
13,8
Chimie
18,1Biologie applique-
cologie
8,3
Recherchemdicale
33,2
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Specialisation index : an indicator that describes the university scientificproduction activity, whatever the size, the overall performance etc
It is not said if one discipline is better than another (a research policyquestion), hence, a higher specialisation index in one disciplinebetter or not for the university
Butregarding national policies, or funding structure of the university,the index allows to position the university within the more globalenvironment (the region, the nation, the EU etc)
The environment (the market ) is important to position the universityactivities
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The bidimensional positioning
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Indice de spcialisation et impact relatif
(compte fractionnaire)
Biologie
fondamentale
Recherche
mdicale
Biolo gie applique -
cologie
Chimie
Physique
Sciences de
l'univers
Sciences pour
l'ingnieur
M athmatiques
M ultidisciplinaire
0
0,5
1
1,5
0 0,5 1 1,5
Indice de spcialisation
Impactrelatif5
ans
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Co-publications activity (networks of partners for scientific publications).
Is for a university better to collaborate more or less, with whom, inwhich disciplineetc: this answer from the university manager willbe different than the answer from the research policy analyst or fromthe funding agency. The position for each actors will depend on
the location of the actors within the given environment of theuniversity considered (see Bourdieu : the actor speaks from itslocation within the scientific field, and considering its scientificcapital - which definition comes from intrisic rules or norms for this
specific field)
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% of articles of Univ A 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
en mono-signature 19,8 28,9 19,8 24,0 25,2 22,6
en copublication 80,2 71,1 80,2 76,0 74,8 77,4
en copublication Univ A 13,0 14,2 15,6 15,6 14,8 14,9
en copublication internationale 44,1 46,1 43,3 48,7 50,9 51,8
en copublication europenne 25,5 25,2 23,2 26,2 26,4 28,9
Total 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0
Total en nombre d'articles 2106 2027 2101 2024 2051 1764
% d'articles de la France 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001en mono-signature 30,8 29,4 27,8 26,2 24,6 22,2
en copublication 69,2 70,6 72,2 73,8 75,4 77,8
en copublication France 47,5 47,7 49,3 49,7 49,7 51,2
en copublication internationale 32,8 34,7 35,7 37,5 39,6 41,6
en copublication europenne 16,3 17,4 17,9 19,0 20,0 21,3Total 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0
Total en nombre d'articles 45865 47340 48639 48544 49330 43082
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Biologie fondamentale
FR
A
US
A
DE
U
GB
R
CH
E JPN BEL CAN ITA CEI ESP NLD
SW
E AUS CSK DNK
190 99 51 27 23 20 15 15 14 11 10 8 7 7 5 5
Recherche mdicaleFR
AUS
AGB
RDE
UCH
E BEL ITASW
E CAN NLD JPN ESP AUT AUS DNK BRA
145 33 19 18 13 10 9 8 6 6 5 5 4 3 3 3Biologie applique -
cologieFR
AUS
ADE
UCA
NGB
R JPN ITA BEL CHE ESPMD
GCH
N AUS CSKNO
R PAKPR
T
28 8 8 6 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1
ChimieFR
ADE
U USAGB
R ITACH
E JPN ESP CEI BEL CAN DZAMA
R AUS NLD POL
133 54 48 31 27 14 14 10 8 8 8 6 6 6 6 5
PhysiqueFR
AUS
ADE
UGB
R ITACH
E POL BELNO
R CEI HUN SLQSW
E BRAGR
C PRT
134 79 68 53 49 42 29 25 22 21 20 17 16 16 14 13
Sciences de l'universFR
AUS
ADE
UGB
R ITACH
ECA
N BEL ESP NLD CEI IND AUS JPNSW
E POL
79 25 20 15 10 7 6 6 6 5 4 4 4 3 3 3
Sciences pour l'ingnieur
FRA
USA
DEU ITA
CHE NLD
GBR CEI AUT POL BEL
MAR
GRC
CHN ESP IND
40 14 11 10 6 5 5 4 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2
MathmatiquesFR
AUS
A ITADE
UCH
NCH
EGB
R POL BELBR
A CAN CEI ESP IND JPN MEXNLD
TUR
11 6 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Multidisciplinaire FRA USA DEU GBR ITA BEL CHN JPN AUS CHE ESP CEI DNK FIN ISR MDG
10 9 4 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Toutes disciplinesFR
AUS
ADE
UGB
R ITACH
E BEL JPN CEI POL ESP CANSW
E NLDNO
R BRA
646 286 205 141 111 97 62 52 45 43 42 39 37 32 28 26
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Activity index : in which set of articles the university produces the most.
The life of scientific articles is then dependent on its visibility : it can never be cited, orcited some times or very visibile and cited a lot.
Glnzel recalls that there are at least 15 different reasons for citing an article.
Paying homage to pioneers, giving credit for related work, identifying methodology,
providing background reading, correcting ones own work, correcting the work ofothers, criticising previous work, substantiating claims, alerting the forthcoming work,providing leads to poorly disseminated etcwork, authenticating data, identifyingoriginal publication in which an idea/concept was discussed, disclaiming work ofothers, disputing priority claims of others
This cited life of the article place it in a set of articles with the same life. We define 6sets of articles from the 5% most cited to the 40% not cited.
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The issues of normalization (discipline or specialisation, before geographicalnormalization) is a positioning approach. The same set of data, with adifferent normalization, tells a different story on the university analysed :
normalizing is focusing on a set of components; it structures theenvironment.
You can have very good results in a specific set of data (articles) but overallbeing less good or average, alltogether.
Barr says co-constructing indicators : the context of the number (the resultof the measure) has been discussed by the actors before measuring. Theindicator is elaborated without number (it the context/the environmentwhich is being structured through the construction of the indicator)
Once the environment is structured, the university within this structuredenvironment can be analysed (positioned both in the given environment andwithin its own trajectory).
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To conclude
Univ
State
Industry
Public
NGO
Society
Source : adapted from Etzkovitz, Leydesdorff
The university is embeddedwithin an evolving environment.
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Univ/PRO
Univ
State
Industry
Public
NGO
Society
Source : adapted from Callon, Laredo
The university interactswith the components of this environment.
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Univ/PRO
1.Collaborations
2. Human resources :
fluxes, mobility3. Hybrid forms: joint
labs mixtes, spin-offs,
entrepreneurial univ.
Univ
State
Industry
Public
NGO
Public
The university is embedded in several networkswith its researchpartners in this environment.
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We have seen technical examples to illustrate the general idea ofthe concept of positioning indicators.
The interest of this frame is that we enlarge the focus and considerindicators are also a good tool for knowing the environment and thelinks between the environment and the university.
Universities (and researchers) need more and more indicators thatare able to tell a new story on an old system ; the frame of positioning indicators is adapting data and indicators with this
aim. It serves both parties.
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http://www.obs-ost.fr
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