Should a country's GDP be considered as a criterion in ranking a university?

What are your thoughts?

i don't think GDP has any bearing on a university's excellence: there are excellent universities in relatively poor countries; and there are definitely crappy universities in rich countries.

GDP takes heavily into account factors like infrastructure, politics, geography (natural resources) which do not have any direct bearing on a university's excellence.

If GDP should be, and given that currently UAE has a higher GDP than USA/UK, then why wouldn't anyone consider studying at UAE universities instead of American universities like Harvard?

Asking to justify myself in a Hong Kong forum.

Reply 1

999tigger

19

Original post by bingbongchang

What are your thoughts?

i don't think GDP has any bearing on a university's excellence: there are excellent universities in relatively poor countries; and there are definitely crappy universities in rich countries.

GDP takes heavily into account factors like infrastructure, politics, geography (natural resources) which do not have any direct bearing on a university's excellence.

If GDP should be, and given that currently UAE has a higher GDP than USA/UK, then why wouldn't anyone consider studying at UAE universities instead of American universities like Harvard?

Asking to justify myself in a Hong Kong forum.

Nope and I dont believe any ranking systems take it into account as its not relevant.

Reply 2

Napp

22

Why would anyone care about the countries GDP when looking at the quality of the university?

Reply 3

username1148663

21

Original post by bingbongchang

What are your thoughts?

i don't think GDP has any bearing on a university's excellence: there are excellent universities in relatively poor countries; and there are definitely crappy universities in rich countries.

GDP takes heavily into account factors like infrastructure, politics, geography (natural resources) which do not have any direct bearing on a university's excellence.

If GDP should be, and given that currently UAE has a higher GDP than USA/UK, then why wouldn't anyone consider studying at UAE universities instead of American universities like Harvard?

Asking to justify myself in a Hong Kong forum.

The UAE doesn’t have a higher GDP than the USA 😳

Reply 4

Zoqua

16

Original post by bingbongchang

What are your thoughts?

i don't think GDP has any bearing on a university's excellence: there are excellent universities in relatively poor countries; and there are definitely crappy universities in rich countries.

GDP takes heavily into account factors like infrastructure, politics, geography (natural resources) which do not have any direct bearing on a university's excellence.

If GDP should be, and given that currently UAE has a higher GDP than USA/UK, then why wouldn't anyone consider studying at UAE universities instead of American universities like Harvard?

Asking to justify myself in a Hong Kong forum.

The UAE has a higher GDP per capita on a PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) basis, not a higher GDP, not the same thing.

I do not think that the GDP of a country a university is in should matter, as I don't see how it can be used to judge quality of the university, especially when there are things like employment statistics and average salary spaced intervals after graduation (5 year, 10 year etc), which are much more university specific and relevant than the GDP of the country the university happens to be in. Also it's not too difficult (or at least previous wasn't before COVID-19) to go to university as an international student and then seek jobs in other countries.

Reply 5

username1799249

19

Am I the only person trying to figure out why GDP (economic output of a country) is being compared to the quality of a university (quality of teaching and learning)?

Why not compare quality of a university with healthcare or miles of canal or any other meaningless metric?

Reply 6

Gundabad(good)

20

Original post by bingbongchang

What are your thoughts?

i don't think GDP has any bearing on a university's excellence: there are excellent universities in relatively poor countries; and there are definitely crappy universities in rich countries.

GDP takes heavily into account factors like infrastructure, politics, geography (natural resources) which do not have any direct bearing on a university's excellence.

If GDP should be, and given that currently UAE has a higher GDP than USA/UK, then why wouldn't anyone consider studying at UAE universities instead of American universities like Harvard?

Asking to justify myself in a Hong Kong forum.

GDP is not enough of an indication of how good a country is. HDI and GDP per capita is though.

Reply 7

bingbongchang

OP

2

Original post by ByEeek

Am I the only person trying to figure out why GDP (economic output of a country) is being compared to the quality of a university (quality of teaching and learning)?

Why not compare quality of a university with healthcare or miles of canal or any other meaningless metric?