Europe Starts Work on Its Own University-Ranking System

The European Union has begun laying the groundwork for the creation of its own university-ranking system with the selection of a consortium of European research groups to carry out a feasibility study “on the design and testing of a new multidimensional global university ranking.”

Many European institutions have long complained that the main global ranking systems, such as the annual compilation produced by China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University, do not fairly evaluate their strengths. “Existing rankings tend to focus on research in ‘hard sciences’ and ignore the performance of universities in areas like humanities and social sciences, teaching quality, and community outreach,” the European Commission said in a news release announcing the study.

Odile Quintin, the commission’s director general for education, said in an interview with the Australian newspaper The Australian that the new ranking would be focused on Europe, but “would also have a global reach.”

The winning bid for the feasibility study was submitted by the CHERPA-Network consortium, led by the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies at Twente University, in the Netherlands, and the Center for Higher Education Development, in Germany.

In the first phase of the feasibility study, which will run until the end of this year, the consortium will design the new system. It will then test it beginning in January 2011, on a representative sample of at least 150 higher-education and research institutions focused on the disciplines of engineering and business studies. —Aisha Labi