From the Readers

Why universities are ranked

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-14 09:18

Comment on "Disregard University rankings" (China Daily website, June 2)

Why universities are ranked

The university ranking system greatly influences students and their lives, and that is the precise reason why it exists.

If you ask a Chinese student who hasn't attended a prestigious university about the prospects of employment, he or she may tell you it's hard to find a decent job. That may not be the case with students from so-called famous universities.

As for the ranking system, the organizations that rank the universities should be required to list the criteria they adopt so that people can make a more informed judgment of the ranking. Plus, there should be a mix of the subjective criteria that have been used with some crucial objective ones such as graduates' employment rate.

Ma Long, on China Daily website

Better to rank them differently

The present system of ranking universities is absurd. It is really difficult to differentiate between third and the fifth best universities.

Perhaps it would be better to rank universities in groups. For instance, we can say that some universities are among the top 10 without numbering them in the 1,2,3 sequence. The next group could be from 11 to 30, and the one after from 31 to 55. They should be like horizontal blocks of a pyramid.

B.S. Goh, on China Daily website

Readers' comments are welcome. Please send your e-mail to opinion@chinadaily.com.cn or letters@chinadaily.com.cn or to the individual columnists. China Daily reserves the right to edit all letters. Thank you.