The European Commission has issued a press release which details plans for a new international ranking for universities, to be known as U-Multirank. Universities will be invited to sign up for the new ranking in early 2013, and the first results are expected by early 2014. The initiative will be formally launched at a conference in Dublin on 30 January 2013.
The new ranking will differ from existing rankings by rating universities according to a wider range of criteria, with the overall aim being to provide a “more realistic and user-friendly guide to what they offer”.
Universities will be ranked in five separate areas:
- reputation for research;
- quality of teaching and learning;
- international orientation;
- success in knowledge transfer; and
- regional engagement.
The Commission is seeking to attract a wide range of universities to take part in the first phase of U-Multirank, which will then be extended later. The initiative will receive EUR 2 million in funding from the EU’s Lifelong Learning Programme.
U-Multirank will be based on objective criteria and data, with an independent consortium having been selected to carry out the ranking. The consortium consists of the Centre for Higher Education in Germany; the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies in the Netherlands; and other partners including academic publishers Elsevier, the Bertelsmann Foundation and software firm Folge 3. The consortium will also work with other national and European organisations in order to compile accurate data.
More details can be seen in the press release which is accessible below.