The geopolitics of knowledge in the mediatization of global university rankings

Arif Kabir

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The media pays increasing attention to global university rankings (GURs) results published by different agencies every year. However, there is a lack of research to understand the power dynamics underlying the coverage of GURs from a Global South perspective.

New research

Shahjahan Riyad, Nishorggo Niloy, and I have recently published a paper entitled The Role of Geopolitics of Knowledge in the Mediatization of Global University Ranking in the Higher Education Journal. Our focus was on how Bangladeshi media portrays GURs as a measure of university quality and accountability and how it privileges specific knowledge and authors’ experiences that perpetuate the geopolitics of knowledge in the local context.

Methodology

We utilised the idea of geopolitics of knowledge to analyse publicly available and relevant media posts from Bangladesh. We drew heavily on Walter Mignolo’s (2011) “geopolitics of knowledge” concept to analyse the findings. Specifically, our study focused on four major Bangladeshi print media and national dailies: Prothom Alo, Samakal, Daily Star, and Dhaka Tribune. Two of these dailies (Samakal and Prothom Alo) are in Bengali, while the others are in English.

We chose these newspapers because of their wide readerships, corporate interests, and regular coverage of university rankings (GURs) targeting young adults, policymakers, academics, and the Bangladeshi diaspora abroad. Our analysis included all articles published by these outlets on university rankings, explicitly focusing on THE and QS rankings. It identified and reviewed headlines and key phrases from each national daily between 2019 and 2021, resulting in 73 relevant posts on GURs.

Our analysis involved blending a critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach with the examination of non-discursive elements. This involved systematically exploring the relationships between discursive practices, events, texts, and wider social and cultural structures, relations, and processes. We coded the media posts by critically examining the rhetoric of headlines, the specific GURs mentioned, the short bios of authors, the types of posts, and the narratives/quotes in these pieces.

Findings

In our analysis, we emphasise how the Bangladeshi media normalises GURs as universal indicators of quality and accountability. We also examine how different entities manipulate media norms to assert their authority in higher education (HE) policy. Our analysis is presented in two themes: Mediatization, GURs, and accountability of Bangladeshi HE, and Mediatization, and local versus expat authors.

In the first theme, we explore how Bangladeshi media perpetuates geopolitics of knowledge in three ways: (a) GURs were considered a proxy of the quality of the local HE sector, (b) local hierarchies in the sector were reconstituted or reproduced, and (c) reference societies and institutions were used from elsewhere. We analyse how Bangladeshi media plays a role in perpetuating these geopolitics by treating GURs as universal indicators of quality. Additionally, by showcasing the performance of elite local institutions in GURs, the media further perpetuates geopolitics both globally and locally. Furthermore, the media reproduces geopolitics by referencing institutions from outside Bangladesh in their coverage of GURs.

In the second theme, we examine how many local academics and diasporic alumni/academics have contributed opinion pieces to the media coverage of GURs in Bangladesh. These opinion pieces illustrate how the geopolitics of knowledge influences the mediatization of GURs in the context of the Global South. The authors rely on GURs as a global benchmark to assess the quality of Bangladeshi HE.

Our analysis demonstrates how knowledge hierarchies are perpetuated among local and expatriate/diasporic academics, particularly concerning where, what, and who is featured to support arguments about reforming Bangladeshi HE based on recent GUR results. Additionally, we observe how Bangladeshi media coverage of GURs gives preference to the voices of diasporic alums and academics due to their locations and expertise. As a result of their experiences abroad, diasporic individuals are given greater coverage in opinion pieces compared to similar studies of national media in other countries.

Contribution

Our research contributes to the field of critical higher education policy discourse by using the concept of geopolitical knowledge. We have shed light on the underlying knowledge and power relations in the Global South, where GURs are seen as valuable tools in local higher education policy discussions despite some criticisms and are universally accepted ranking criteria.

Furthermore, our research contributes to critical discourse analysis. Specifically, our analysis has raised methodological and theoretical questions that future research can explore regarding the representation of GURs in the media. Methodologically, our analysis suggests the implications of combining discursive and non-discursive analysis in portraying higher education policy in the media. Using a blended approach, we can study beyond the media content. While discursive analysis reveals the implications, rhetoric, and persuasive aspects of texts, non-discursive analysis – drawing on the researchers’ personal knowledge of local authorship – can demystify the position of the authors. This combined approach helps uncover the complex relationships within Global South higher education institutions often depicted in local or new media texts. This methodological approach can further investigate the hierarchical relationships within and among faculty, students, intra-institutional power dynamics, academic administration, and more.

Arif Kabir is a teaching scholar at the School of Education, Deakin University, Australia. His research interests include postcolonialism, neoliberalism, higher education, education policy and practices, comparative and international education, and critical pedagogy.

AI statement: Grammarly has been used to enhance the clarity of the language in the writing of this post.