I would simply give it a laugh. These days rankings are more about relationships. So would you dismiss schools in other design-ish conscious countries like Japan, Italy and France? How about Germany? So who is to decide which are the best and who are the best? Does a school that value adds a student most be disregarded as a fine school?
It's about the same manner for people who determine who win theNobel Peace Prize and judge who are the saints and crooks. It's simply too judgemental and unfair.
To me, the best design school, or indeed a respectable school, is one that offers the healthiest learning environment which is international in perspective;holistic in its approach;unassuming in its high standards and receptive to different cultures of learning & research. That also means you take in any brilliant minds without a preconditioned set of standards that blocks anyone from a chance to pursue their studies. Or chuck away schools that don't resemble a certain culture and style. The ranking seem to be stuck in a common style.
Well, maybe it's not what i have perceived. Maybe it's just me being so elfinic, sitting on my huge little sofa, typing on my toy iPad, wondering what and how this world has becoming to be.
Hell, just laugh at how these ranking works!
Cheers,
Karen
On 25 Nov, 2012, at 21:12, Mark Evans <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I would like to congratulate the design schools who made it into Business Insider¡¯s ranking of the World¡¯s 25 Best Design Schools which were announced on 23 November. Twenty two of the schools were from the USA and 3 were European (RCA, Aalto, Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design).
>
> I have genuine respect for many of the schools listed in the top 25 but must confess that, despite what I consider to be a global perspective on design teaching/reseach, there were a few that I had never heard of.
>
> Members of the List might be interested in the methodology used for the survey which, from details available on the launch page (http://www.businessinsider.com/vote-now-help-us-choose-the-worlds-best-design-school-2012-8) appears to have:
>
> - Canvassed (approach unspecified) a number (not quantified) of top venture capitalists, designers and professionals (names unspecified) to assemble a preliminary list
>
> - Had no restrictions/control on who could participate in the survey
>
> - Allowed respondents to add to the list of design schools
>
> - Required respondents to have been a reader of the US-based/centric Business Insight or have been directed to the survey that was launched on 6 September 2012
>
> - Required respondents to have completed an on-line questionnaire
>
> - Require respondents to rank the schools as ¡°somewhat valuable, valuable, or extremely valuable?¡± in helping them in their future career
>
> - Had a statistically significant sample size of 633 respondents
>
> The ranking can be found at http://www.businessinsider.com/the-worlds-25-best-design-schools-2012-11?op=1
>
> When I read the results, the first thought that came to my mind was a parallel association with the ironically and optimistically titled World Series Baseball.
>
> Mark
>
> Dr Mark Evans
> Loughborough Design School (sadly not listed in the top 25)
>
>
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