Europe's new ranking system unveiled

The Europe-driven global benchmarking system U-Multirank, which allows universities to create personalised rankings using an array of indicators, was unveiled in Brussels last week. It is "a new user-driven, multi-dimensional and multi-level ranking tool in higher education and research," said its creators. Because of these characteristics, U-Multirank differs substantially from existing rankings and meets the needs of various higher education stakeholders, said its designers Frans van Vught and Frank Ziegele in a presentation on Thursday. They stressed that the new benchmarking system would only be finalised later this year, after further testing of its feasibility, fine-tuning and feedback from last week's seminar. A student, a university administrator and a business representative demonstrated the personalised online ranking system at the seminar. U-Multirank, a two-year project initiated and funded by the European Commission, has been developed by the Consortium for Higher Education and Research Performance Assessment, CHERPA, led by the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies at the University of Twente in the Netherlands and the Center for Higher Education Development in Germany. It is seen as continental Europe's answer to the three major existing rankings produced by China's Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Times Higher Education and QS in Britain. These rankings focus significantly on research and English-language publication, and are seen by many in Europe as providing a distorted picture of global university quality and purpose. ... Karen MacGregor 12 June 2011 Lire la suite ici