Miguel Lim defends his PhD thesis at Aarhus University and is awarded the doctor degree

UNIKE PhD fellow Miguel Antonio Lim successfully defended his PhD at Aarhus University on January 12 2017.

Miguel together with friends and colleagues in the celebrations following his PhD defence.
Associate professor Gritt Nielsen from DPU, Aarhus University, officially awards Miguel his title of doctorate.

Miguel Lim defended his PhD dissertation, entitled The Work of Global University Rankers and the Building of Weak Expertise, on January 12 at DPU, Aarhus University.

In the UNIKE project, Miguel learned about how university ranking systems work, who university rankers are, and how they have come to play an important role within global higher education. In his thesis, Miguel Lim draws on fieldwork conducted mainly at the Times Higher Education in London, but also at the Shanghai Jiaotong University Rankings and the QS World University Rankings in London.

Miguel's work is the first research that presents insights from within the ranking organizations. In the thesis, he argues that rankers are embedded in networks of other experts and professionals and operate in a wide, interconnected community. Rankers are are influential but are also criticized and resisted. They need to achieve a balance between relevance, reliability, and robustness of their ranking instruments. Miguel’s work also argues that rankings are active, not inert, instruments that have a life of their own and that do not always behave in ways that policymakers want.

Read more about Miguel's research project.

The assessment committee on Miguel's deference comprised Professor Gita Steiner-Khamsi from Columbia University, Teachers College in New York; Professor Chris Shore from Auckland University in New Zealand; and Associate professor Jakob Krause-Jensen from DPU, Aarhus University.

Since November 2016 Miguel Lim has been employed as Lecturer in Education and International Development at the University of Manchester where he is currently teaching and will be furthering his research on university ranking systems and wider issues in education policy.