Babysteps...

Grein Eiríks Bergmans um takmark HÍ.

Athugasemdir

[Luca Aceto, 31.10.2007 kl. 14:32]

"Til að komast á topp 100 þarf fyrst að komast á topp 500."

Indeed, and the problem is that this is a rapidly moving target.  Which of the established "top 100" universities is not strengthening itself all the time? And what about the plethora of up-and-coming universities in, e.g., Asia? China for one is investing hugely in its universities and top-notch Chinese scholars are making the trip back home after having graced the great American universities.

I never felt that setting oneself the target to be a top-100 university was worthwhile in itself. Achieving this aim is much too dependent on factors outside one's control. The most productive thing that can come out of this effort is an overall improvement in the quality of the institution concerned. Now, this is worth investing effort in! The journey is often more important than the goal.

What I would be worried about however, if I were the rector of HÍ, is the reaction that a failure to enter the top 500 universities in the world would have on her institution after a lot of effort has been put into becoming a top 100 university. The morale of the academics at HÍ is bound to suffer unnecessarily. ("My God, we have sweated blood, produced much more than we ever did, and still we are not top 500 material!") Mine certainly would if, for instance, I set myself the aim to become a highly-cited ISI researcher, worked like mad at it and failed.

Wouldn't it be more productive to set oneself measurable goals that are more under one's control, such as doubling the number of journal papers in international high-quality outlets (based on lists that are available for everyone to see), or that of graduated PhD students? And what about increasing the number of postdocs threefold, say? This would not bring any institution in Iceland in the top 100 list---far from it---, but, boy, wouldn't it improve the scientific research environment in Icelandic academia! At the end of the day, this is the most important goal we should all strive to achieve.