Judging looks
Things aren't always what they seem
Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to travel to Kuwait City to attend and present at the 2023 QS Higher Ed Summit: Middle East and Africa. It might surprise you to learn that while it was the fourth ME&A event that my team and I have put together, it was the first time I was able to attend physically. The 2020 and 2021 editions were held entirely online, for obvious reasons, but for the 2022 hybrid event, I took charge of the online portions while other members of the team travelled to Dubai.
Finally on the ground in 2023, I was able to meet many people who I had previously only ever seen and spoken to through a computer monitor. Invariably, however, when I rushed to say hello to colleagues I’d spoken to for hours online, they would pause before recognising me. It wasn’t until the final day that I understood their hesitation. Over the course of the past three years, I’ve changed my appears several times. At ME&A, I wore glasses for the first time at a QS event, and my hair is now much shorter. One delegate also pointed out my hair is also much lighter than in 2020!
Once colleagues recognised me, however, discussions and celebrations proceeded. Ultimately, while my exterior changed, my interior has remained the same, albeit, hopefully, a little wiser than when the decade started.
I recounted this story towards the end of the 2023 QS Middle East and Africa Summit, and I used it to reflect on the core principles of higher education and international education. Technology, pedagogy, campuses, lecture halls and many other things may change externally, but the essence of education remains the same: the betterment of individuals and societies. This was exactly the point of the summit’s theme, Envisioning a meaningful future. In other words, don’t judge a book by its cover.
Conversely, the same is true for things that don’t seek to better individuals or societies. Perhaps a better phrase in these instances is “wolves in sheep’s clothing”, and this is the theme of the cover story for the second edition of QS Insights Magazine. “Swimming with sharks” details how and why predatory journals exist, and I was surprised by the ways in which they seek to emulate authenticity.
Emulation can be as simple as slightly changing the title of a pre-existing publication. Mobile and tablet readers might have noticed we did just that for their view of this edition (QS Insides Magazine), as well as flipped the image (it wasn’t a mistake). If you missed it, however, that does give some indication of how little effort predatory journals need to put in to mislead.
The second edition of QS Insights Magazine is also our first to include rankings. We hope you enjoy the data visualisation and content helping to bring them alive.
This is a packed issue of international higher education content, and I hope you enjoy.
Stay safe.
Anton John Crace
Anton is Editor and Program Designer at QS Quacquarelli Symonds. He was the former Asia Pacific editor of The PIE News and was recognised as the Universities Australia Higher Education Journalist of the Year in 2019 at the National Press Club of Australia.