University rankings shape the global market in higher education as much as they describe it. By changing the rankings we alter global competition. This is what Simon Marginson reminds us not to forget when judging the performance of a higher education institution. In his presentation he gives an overview of a number of well-known rankings including the weighting mechanisms they apply. In addition, he compares these rankings to the patterns of spending on higher education in different countries in order to come up with a classification of global clusters of institutions. Interestingly, there seem to be some anomalies in the rankings we base our judgements on.