Educational Rankings Annual is useful for students, parents and school faculty. Also administrators of libraries and educational institutions use rankings to defend budgets, justify new positions, obtain government funding and attract philanthropic support. The annually updated resource presents more than 4,000 national, regional and international lists and rankings compiled from hundreds of respected sources. The entries in Rankings include a description of the ranking, background information on criteria for establishing the hierarchy, additional remarks about the ranking, the complete or partial (if extensive) ranking and source citations if necessary.

This up-to-date resource presents more than 4,000 national, regional, local and international lists and rankings compiled from hundreds of respected sources. Entries typically include a description of the ranking; background information on criteria for establishing the hierarchy; additional remarks about the ranking; the complete or partial (if extensive) ranking; and a complete source citation for locating additional information if necessary.

Due to the fast growth of the Web and the difficulties in finding desired information, efficient and effective information retrieval systems have become more important than ever, and the search engine has become an essential tool for many people. The ranker, a central component in every search engine, is responsible for the matching between processed queries and indexed documents. Because of its central role, great attention has been paid to the research and development of ranking technologies. In addition, ranking is also pivotal for many other information retrieval applications, such as collaborative filtering, definition ranking, question answering, multimedia retrieval, text summarization, and online advertisement. Leveraging machine learning technologies in the ranking process has led to innovative and more effective ranking models, and eventually to a completely new research area called “learning to rank”. Liu first gives a comprehensive review of the major approaches to learning to rank. For each approach he presents the basic framework, with example algorithms, and he discusses its advantages and disadvantages. He continues with some recent advances in learning to rank that cannot be simply categorized into the three major approaches – these include relational ranking, query-dependent ranking, transfer ranking, and semisupervised ranking. His presentation is completed by several examples that apply these technologies to solve real information retrieval problems, and by theoretical discussions on guarantees for ranking performance. This book is written for researchers and graduate students in both information retrieval and machine learning. They will find here the only comprehensive description of the state of the art in a field that has driven the recent advances in search engine development.

This series continues to strengthen its focus on results, monitoring, and evaluation. The latest 2006 edition updates the implications of managing for results in World Bank operations, assesses if monitoring and evaluation practices provide staff with information that helps them manage for results, and looks at IEG's own effectiveness. Its recommendations address ways to make monitoring and evaluation more effective and influential tools.

Examines how higher education has contributed to widening inequalities and might contribute to change. By exploring questions of access, finance and pedagogy, it considers global higher education as a space for understanding the promises and pressures associated with competing demands for economic growth, equity, sustainability and democracy.

This ground-breaking and exhaustive analysis of university ranking surveys scrutinizes their theoretical bases, methodological issues, societal impact, and policy implications, providing readers with a deep understanding of these controversial comparators. The authors propose that university rankings are misused by policymakers and institutional leaders alike. They assert that these interested parties overlook the highly problematic internal logic of ranking methodologies even as they obsess over the surveys’ assessment of their status. The result is that institutions suffer from short-termism, realigning their resources to maximize their relative rankings. While rankings are widely used in policy and academic discussions, this is the first book to explore the theoretical and methodological issues of ranking itself. It is a welcome contribution to an often highly charged debate. Far from showing how to manipulate the system, this collection of work by key researchers aims to enlighten interested parties.

This book, written by three generations of rankings academics with considerable experience from three very different regions of the globe, lifts the lid on the real impact of higher education ranking systems (HERS) on universities and their stakeholders. It critically analyses the criteria that make up the ‘Big Three’ global ranking systems and, using interviews with senior administrators, academics and managers, discusses their impact on universities from four very different continents. Higher education continues to be dominated by a reputational hierarchy of institutions that sustains and is reinforced by HERS. Despite all the opinions and arguments about the legitimacy of the rankings as a construct, it seems experts agree that they are here to stay. The question, therefore, seems to be less about whether or not universities should be compared and ranked, but the manner in which this is undertaken. Delivering a fresh perspective on global rankings, this book summarizes the development of HERS and provides a critical evaluation of the effects of HERS on four different major regions – South Africa, the Arab region, South East Asia, and Australia. It will appeal to any academic, student, university administrator or governing body interested in or affected by global higher education ranking systems.

Gathering contributions by leading social development scholars, this report offers a comprehensive description of the national development of cultural consumption in China. By comparing the annual growth of cultural consumption, GDP growth, per-capita income growth and savings growth, the authors reveal the disparity between urban and rural areas in terms of cultural consumption, as well as that between provinces. Based on an analysis of the status quo of cultural consumption in China, the book explores the road to a prosperous society and enhancing China’s cultural development.