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University rankings in action? The importance of rankings and an excellence competition for university choice of high-ability students

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  • Horstschräer, Julia

Abstract

This paper analyzes how high-ability students respond to different indicators of university quality when applying for a university. Are prospective students influenced by quality indicators of a university ranking or by an excellence status awarded within a nationwide competition? And if so, are some quality dimensions, e.g. research reputation, mentoring, faculty infrastructure, students’ satisfaction or the excellence status, more important than others? In order to address these questions, I estimate a random utility model using administrative application data of all German medical schools. As identification relies on the variation in quality indicators over time, I can disentangle the response to changing quality indicators from the common knowledge regarding university attractiveness. Results show that the ranking provides more relevant information in the quality dimensions mentoring, faculty infrastructure and the overall students’ satisfaction than with respect to research.

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  • Horstschräer, Julia, 2012. "University rankings in action? The importance of rankings and an excellence competition for university choice of high-ability students," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 1162-1176.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:31:y:2012:i:6:p:1162-1176
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2012.07.018
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    Cited by:

    1. Guironnet, Jean-Pascal & Peypoch, Nicolas, 2018. "The geographical efficiency of education and research: The ranking of U.S. universities," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 44-55.
    2. Gibbons, Stephen & Neumayer, Eric & Perkins, Richard, 2015. "Student satisfaction, league tables and university applications: Evidence from Britain," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 148-164.
    3. Mira Fischer & Patrick Kampkötter, 2017. "Effects of German Universities' Excellence Initiative on Ability Sorting of Students and Perceptions of Educational Quality," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 173(4), pages 662-687, December.
    4. Horstschräer, Julia, 2012. "Decentralizing university admission: Evidence from a natural experiment," ZEW Discussion Papers 12-076, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    5. Rhys J. Williams, 2022. "The effect of casual teaching on student satisfaction: evidence from the UK," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(1), pages 91-111, January.
    6. Stephen Gibbons & Eric Neumayer & Richard Perkins, 2013. "Student Satisfaction, League Tables and University Applications," SERC Discussion Papers 0142, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    7. Angela Maria D’Uggento & Luca Petruzzellis & Luigi Piper & Antonia Rosa Gurrieri, 2023. "In the name of the University: the choice to promote as a tool to influence decision-making," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 3151-3164, August.
    8. Tullia Russo & Tindata Addabbo & Silvia Muzzioli & Bernard De Baets, 2021. "Tools and practices for LGBT+ inclusion in tertiary education: the development of the LGBT+ University Inclusion Index and its application to Italian universities Abstract: The literature provides evi," Department of Economics 0187, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    9. Cantner, Uwe & Grashof, Nils & Grebel, Thomas & Zhang, Xijie, 2023. "When Excellence is not Excellent: The Impact of the Excellence Initiative on the Relative Productivity of German Universities," MPRA Paper 118139, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Daniel Weimar & Markus Schauberger, 2018. "The impact of sporting success on student enrollment," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 88(6), pages 731-764, August.
    11. Aparicio Fenoll, Ainoa, 2021. "The best in the class," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    12. Zsuzsanna Banász & Zsolt T. Kosztyán & Vivien V. Csányi & András Telcs, 2023. "University leagues alongside rankings," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 721-736, February.
    13. Biancardi, Daniele & Bratti, Massimiliano, 2019. "The effect of introducing a Research Evaluation Exercise on student enrolment: Evidence from Italy," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 73-93.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Higher education; University choice; College admission; Conditional logit;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • C25 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions; Probabilities

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