Obtaining a picture of undergraduate education quality: a voice from inside the university

Abstract

This study aims to construct ranking indicators from the perspective inside of the university and shift the ranking target from overall university quality to undergraduate education quality. In dealing with the complexity of the concept of undergraduate education quality, two-stage questionnaire survey was conducted to gain comprehensive opinions from 20 higher education evaluation experts. The Fuzzy Delphi Method then was introduced to perform data analysis and help final indicator selection as well as the distribution of weights. The results compared with ranking systems conducted by US NEWS and Guardian showed weighting differences and greater comprehensiveness in terms of the types of measures, sources of data and different perspectives from the students, employers and the academics. Most important of all, this study provided a more transparent ranking system and detailed ranking methodology that are crucial for users’ understanding and use of the ranking system.