One of the two answers was written by Dr. György Fábri PhD, the editor-in-chief of our site, and the other by chatGPT. How can you decide which one is which?? And which do you agree with?
Can replace ChatGPT the university rankings?
No, chatbots like ChatGPT cannot replace university rankings. University rankings are usually compiled by independent organizations using various criteria such as academic reputation, research output, student satisfaction, and employability of graduates. They are a form of evaluation and comparison of universities based on a set of specific criteria.
On the other hand, ChatGPT is an AI-powered language model that can generate human-like text based on the input it receives. It can answer questions and provide information, but it does not have the capability to evaluate or rank universities. The information it provides is limited to what it has been trained on, and it can sometimes be inaccurate or outdated.
In conclusion, while ChatGPT can be a useful tool for obtaining information about universities, it should not be relied upon as a source of information for making decisions about university rankings or choosing a university.
Can chatGPT provide more and correct information about universities for laypeople than the university rankings?
Yes, it can provide you with more information about universities that is not solely based on university rankings. University rankings can be a useful starting point, but they are limited in the information they provide and can sometimes oversimplify complex aspects of a university.
Here are some other important factors to consider when evaluating universities:
Academic programs and research opportunities: Look into the specific academic programs and research opportunities offered by a university. Consider if they align with your interests and career goals.
Faculty: Consider the credentials, experience, and reputation of the university’s faculty. This can have a significant impact on the quality of the education you receive.
Student life and resources: Think about the resources available to students, including extracurricular activities, support services, and student organizations.
Location: Consider the location of the university and what it has to offer in terms of cultural attractions, job opportunities, and quality of life.
Affordability and financial aid: Assess the overall cost of attending the university and what financial aid and scholarships may be available.
Graduation rates and job prospects: Look into the university’s graduation rates and the job prospects for graduates in your field of study.
These are just a few of the many factors to consider when evaluating universities. By taking a holistic approach and considering multiple sources of information, you can gain a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different universities and make an informed decision about where to attend.
How can use university rankings the chatGPT
As a language model, chatGPT can use university rankings in a number of ways to assist users with information and answer questions. Here are a few ways in which university rankings can be used:
Comparing universities: University rankings can be a useful tool for comparing universities based on specific criteria such as academic reputation, research output, and student satisfaction.
Providing context: Rankings can provide a general sense of where a university stands in comparison to others, which can be useful when considering multiple universities.
Identifying top universities: Rankings can help identify universities that are consistently ranked highly across multiple categories. This can be useful for individuals who are looking for highly regarded universities in a specific field of study.
Informing decisions: Rankings can be used as a starting point for individuals who are trying to decide which universities to apply to. They can help narrow down the list of universities and provide a general sense of which schools are worth considering.
However, it is important to remember that university rankings should not be the sole basis for evaluating a university. They can provide a general sense of a university’s reputation, but they do not take into account factors such as personal fit, location, and cost. It’s important to use university rankings in conjunction with other sources of information, such as personal visits, campus resources, and academic programs, to make an informed decision.
Can chatGPT measure the academic world?
The academic world is “abuzz” with chatGPT.
Most of the comments revolve around the „cheating” or, to put it more mildly, the impact on some aspects of student work. In addition to the general concerns, many also point out that the using of AI does not change this problem essentially, as those who wanted to could cheat without it, but now it will be easier. However, the role of educators is changing, with a need for a sufficiently effective presentation of ethical standards, more sophisticated pedagogies, more personal attention and mentoring.
A rather substantive issue is the mechanisation of of scientific publications. This in itself raises questions about the anomalies of the science-industry (mass production of publications, drying up of original ideas, decline of summarising-synthesising thinking, one-sidedly quantitative nature of quality assessment).
And this is where chatGPT is directly linked to university rankings. On the one hand, it draws even more attention to the questionable value of the most important indicator: the real value of such amount of academic publications. On the other hand, chatGPT offers the users of the rankings, i.e. applying students, the media and decision-makers, an orientation tool that be competitive with the rankings.
Indeed, the success and power of rankings, and especially media-oriented rankings, is largely due to the fact that they offer an easy-to-use source of information about an inherently complex phenomenon that requires prior knowledge: academic performance. They organise some selected phenomena of the academic world in a form that is transparent to the layperson. These would otherwise only be known to the public after a longer period of research and by asking experts.
However, chatGPT can not only be an easily accessible answer to questions such as which is the best university, but can also personalise these answers: which is the best university for me if I want to work in molecular biology in a country with a nice climate, where there are many tennis courts near the university building and I want to work in a pharmaceutical research company with my degree? In other words, it does not require any more energy than asking a friend, while providing more personalised information than standard rankings.
These two factors combined, i.e. easy accessibility and personalised orientation, make the chatGPT-based information service competitive among university rankings. Of course, there have been ranking experiments in the past that have tried to provide rankings tailored to the preferences of students (SwissUp in Switzerland or UnivPress-PrivatRanking in Hungary), but the most mature and unique at global level is MultiRank. AI takes all this to a higher level by providing a marketing advantage with its own hype, on the one hand, and by being able to use not only the existing indicator database but also the infinite wealth of information about universities.
However, ranking providers have room for manoeuvre: they can “teach AI about universities”, drawing on their experience in information processing and outreach. How this becomes a business model for them is another matter, but the refreshing of the ranking world is inevitable. This in turn will also allow a rethinking of the analysis and critique of rankings.
Dr. habil György Fábri (1964) is an habilitated associate professor (Institute of research on Adult Education and Knowledge Management, Faculty of Education and Psychology of Eötvös Loránd University), head of the Social Communication Research Group. Areas of research: university philosophy, sociology of higher education and science, science communication, social communication, church sociology. His monograph was published on the transformation of Hungarian higher education during the change of regime (1992 Wien) and on university rankings (2017 Budapest). He has edited several scientific journals, and his university courses and publications cover communication theory, university philosophy, science communication, social representation, media and social philosophy, ethics, and church sociology.
Dr. Mircea Dumitru is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bucharest (since 2004). Rector of the University of Bucharest (since 2011). President of the European Society of Analytic Philosophy (2011 – 2014). Corresponding Fellow of the Romanian Academy (since 2014). Minister of Education and Scientific Research (July 2016 – January 2017). Visiting Professor at Beijing Normal University (2017 – 2022). President of the International Institute of Philosophy (2017 – 2020). President of Balkan Universities Association (2019 – 2020). He holds a PhD in Philosophy at Tulane University, New Orleans, USA (1998) with a topic in modal logic and philosophy of mathematics, and another PhD in Philosophy at the University of Bucharest (1998) with a topic in philosophy of language. Invited Professor at Tulsa University (USA), CUNY (USA), NYU (USA), Lyon 3, ENS Lyon, University of Helsinki, CUPL (Beijing, China), Pekin University (Beijing, China). Main area of research: philosophical logic, metaphysics, and philosophy of language. Main publications: Modality and Incompleteness (UMI, Ann Arbor, 1998); Modalitate si incompletitudine, (Paideia Publishing House, 2001, in Romanian; the book received the Mircea Florian Prize of the Romanian Academy); Logic and Philosophical Explorations (Humanitas, Bucharest, 2004, in Romanian); Words, Theories, and Things. Quine in Focus (ed.) (Pelican, 2009); Truth (ed.) (Bucharest University Publishing House, 2013); article on the Philosophy of Kit Fine, in The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, the Third Edition, Robert Audi (ed.) (Cambridge University Press, 2015), Metaphysics, Meaning, and Modality. Themes from Kit Fine (ed.) (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).
Mr. Degli Esposti is Full Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Deputy Rector Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Dean of Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna, Head of Service for the health and safety of people in the workplace, President of the Alma Mater Foundation and Delegate for Rankings.
Ben joined QS in 2002 and has led institutional performance insights function of QS since its emergence following the early success of the QS World University Rankings®. His team is, today, responsible for the operational management of all major QS research projects including the QS World University Rankings® and variants by region and subject. Comprising over 60 people in five international locations, the team also operate a widely adopted university rating system – QS Stars – and a range of commissioned business intelligence and strategic advisory services.Ben has travelled to over 50 countries and spoken on his research in almost 40. He has personally visited over 50 of the world’s top 100 universities amongst countless others and is a regular and sought after speaker on the conference circuit.Ben is married and has two sons; if he had any free time it would be spent reading, watching movies and skiing.
Anna Urbanovics is a PhD student at Doctoral School of Public Administration Sciences of the University of Public Service, and studies Sociology Master of Arts at the Corvinus University of Budapest. She is graduated in International Security Studies Master of Arts at the University of Public Service. She does research in Scientometrics and International Relations.
Since 1 February 2019 Minister Palkovics as Government Commissioner has been responsible for the coordination of the tasks prescribed in Act XXIV of 2016 on the promulgation of the Agreement between the Government of Hungary and the Government of the People’s Republic of China on the development, implementation and financing of the Hungarian section of the Budapest-Belgrade Railway Reconstruction Project.
He is the past President of the Health and Health Care Economics Section of the Hungarian Economics Association.
Based in Berlin, Zuzanna Gorenstein is Head of Project of the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK) service project “International University Rankings” since 2019. Her work at HRK encompasses the conceptual development and implementation of targeted advisory, networking, and communication measures for German universities’ ranking officers. Before joining the HRK, Zuzanna Gorenstein herself served as ranking officer of Freie Universität Berlin.
His books on mathematical modeling of chemical, biological, and other complex systems have been published by Princeton University Press, MIT Press, Springer Publishing house. His new book RANKING: The Unwritten Rules of the Social Game We All Play was published recently by the Oxford University Press, and is already under translation for several languages.
