A tale of two cities’ university rankings : comparing Hong Kong and Singapore

Document Type

Journal article

Source Publication

Higher Education

Publication Date

11-1-2014

Volume

68

Issue

5

First Page

773

Last Page

787

Publisher

Springer Netherlands

Keywords

Hong Kong and Singapore, Indicators, Tertiary education, University ranking

Abstract

Hong Kong and Singapore were former British colonies, have a predominant Chinese population and value. They began to develop quickly in the late 1960s, become financial hubs of the world in the 21st century. This paper reviews the tertiary education development of the two cities, particularly on the perspective of university rankings. It first elaborates about the emergence of university rankings, and the reason why it becomes a growing exercise, and who would be the benefactors of these exercises. Then it examines the performance of universities of the two cities in the international university ranking systems, makes a general assessment about the relative merits of the higher education systems in both cities. The paper requests ranking comparisons on the detailed items rather than just the sums, and argues that universities in the two cities are on par.

DOI

10.1007/s10734-014-9743-z

Print ISSN

00181560

E-ISSN

1573174X

Publisher Statement

Copyright © 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.

Full-text Version

Publisher’s Version

Language

English

Recommended Citation

Soh, K. C., & Ho, K. K. (2014). A tale of two cities’ university rankings: Comparing Hong Kong and Singapore. Higher Education, 68(5), 773-787. doi: 10.1007/s10734-014-9743-z

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