International Association of Universities urges less reliance on rankings in policy

The International Association of Universities (IAU) has urged governments to reduce the reliance of rankings when deciding whether to award funding and visas.

On 29/01/2026, the IAU said governments should "align financial and other incentives with a focus on collaborative and socially relevant research" and "reduce the emphasis on rankings in research and financial policy". The association also encouraged governments "globally to refrain from using university rankings as criteria for assessing the eligibility of researchers or students for visas".

The IAU was endorsing the findings of a report, "Statement on Global University Rankings", developed by an independent expert group commissioned by the United Nations University (UNU) International Institute for Global Health.

The report made several criticisms of the limitations of global university rankings. It said they were "conceptually invalid; based on insufficiently transparent data and methods; biased towards research, STEM subjects and English-speaking universities; as well as accentuating "global, regional and national…