Khaberni - Written by: Ghada Al-Khouli
Oh Player, Oh Destroyer!.. This is how the move of the University of Jordan and the Jordan University of Science and Technology withdrawing from the “Times” world ranking can be described, just three days before the announcement of its results, in a move that confused the academic community and left behind a torrent of questions: Is it a protest against the standards? Or an escape from the result?
The two universities tried to market the withdrawal decision as a principled stance against what they described as systematic changes in the ranking methodology, as if they suddenly discovered that “Times” was changing its mechanisms! But the obvious question echoed in every hall:
Why withdraw now? And why after full participation?
What's funny is that the universities say they defend “academic justice” while many whisper that some universities are informed in advance about their results before publication, which means that the withdrawal decision came after the leaking of the expected ranking, not before that. Here, the story becomes less ideal… and more realistic.
As for the pretext related to the “paid subscription system,” it reveals a deeper flaw in administrative thinking; because Yarmouk University – which is financially struggling – managed to jump from rank 1200 to 600 through real research effort, not money or PR. Yarmouk didn't pay, it published; it didn’t complain, it worked.
Global rankings are not perfect, true, but they also are not an excuse to hang our failures on every year. When research declines, publication rates drop, and genuine research plans are absent, withdrawing from the ranking is more like someone leaving the match fearing the result, not in defense of the principle.
The University of Jordan previously withdrew from the Shanghai ranking, and today it is withdrawing from the Times… so is the problem in the rankings? Or in the performance of our universities?
Perhaps it’s time we stopped “objecting to the mirror,” and think about the image we show to the world.
Universities are not measured by press releases, but by the number of their researches, the audacity of their scientists, and the courage of their administrations in facing the truth.
And we learned that the following universities' ranking in the Times has dropped to the following:
Applied Sciences and Private from 401/500
Jordanian and Yarmouk from 601/800
German and Technology from 801/1000
It is worth noting that the University of Jordan, in partnership with Amman Private University, was scheduled to host the Arab universities ranking ceremony scheduled for the 26th and 27th of the next month.. which raises questions about the reasons for its withdrawal from the ranking despite it being scheduled to host a ceremony including the ranked universities!
