Sirat and William G. Tierney (Eds), Addressing Critical Issues on Quality Assurance and University Rankings in Higher Education in

Rankings of higher education institutions have become increasingly popular, both at the national and global level, since the late 1990s. Originally promulgated as a consumer tool, providing comparative non-biased information about HE performance, today users include governments, employers, sponsors, and many other stakeholder groups – and their popularity is growing. The EU recently announced its intention to develop its own „global ‟ ranking, and other countries and regions are following suit. Over 45 countries have developed their own national rankings. But how much do we know about the impact and influence of rankings? To date, little has been written about their impact and influence, and that which does draw