A group of alumni are suing University of Southern California and the online education provider 2U for “artificially inflating rankings.” Allegedly, the University cherry-picked data and used the success of its in-person doctoral students to represent ALL its online cohorts. Again, the ranking in question is U.S. News & World Report but I’m sure it’s not an isolated incident. How many other ranking organisations accept data without question? It’s fascinating how much emphasis universities still place on league tables considering students don’t seem to care. For the last few years, UCAS has reported the declining influence of league tables on student decision-making. On UCAS’s applicant survey in 2020, rankings were ranked in 8th place. In 2022, they didn’t even feature in the top 10 with students having a preference for student reviews. Why the change? 10 years ago, ranking organisations held all the information, but today students can get the same insight from “the crowd” in seconds. Expect more league table revelations in 2023 and significant reform to follow.