Rankings of universities have become a truly globalized phenomenon and have undeniably become part of the worldwide higher education discourse. Today, many countries have national rankings of one kind or another devised by newspapers and magazines or initiated by ministries of education, grant councils or accreditation agencies, university associations, or other organizations (Salmi & Saroyan, 2007). National university rankings serve many purposes and interests for a range of stakeholders: they provide easily interpretable information on the standing of universities, they are expected to contribute to the definition of quality, they are intended to stimulate competition and encourage change in organizational strategies, and they provide some of the rationale for the allocation of funds (Marginson, 2007; Sadlak et al., 2008; Stolz et al., 2010). Increasing interest in university rankings has also been reflected in a growing range of academic literature devoted to the topic. University rankings have been examined from methodological, technical, and conceptual perspectives, often from a critical standpoint. Scholars have questioned the shortcomings of rankings, mainly owing to their combination of indicators, the weightings assigned to each indicator, statistical methodology, and stakeholders’ interests (Longden, 2011; Lukman et al., 2010). Many studies have criticized rankings for their disproportionate focus on English-language research published in indexed journals. This downplays the wider mission of higher education by overlooking considerations such as teaching quality, student experience, and community relations (Amsler & Bolsmann, 2012; Harvey, 2008; Pusser & Marginson, 2013). Despite these limitations, some argue that university league tables will likely diffuse further in both national and global contexts (Hazelkorn, 2015; Teichler, 2011). While the emergence of national university rankings can be seen as an irreversible process, diverse local circumstances and approaches to higher education reforms have brought the meaning of university rankings into question