Europe Begins Work on University-Ranking System

The European Union is laying the groundwork for 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."

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 newspaper The Australian that the new ranking system would be focused on Europe but "would also have a global reach."

International rankings of universities have drawn increased attention since they were introduced a few years ago, a reflection of the increasingly global nature of higher education.

The winning bid for the feasibility study was submitted by the Cherpa-Network consortium, 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.

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 start testing in January 2011 on a sample of at least 150 higher-education and research institutions focused on the disciplines of engineering and business studies.

 — Aisha Labi

State Department Promises Speedier Visa Review

The U.S. State Department is moving to speed up the delay-ridden visa-application process for foreign students and scholars.

Seeking to deal with a backlog of visa requests, the department has brought in additional staff members, including both permanent and temporary workers, to handle applications and has revamped policies to accelerate reviews, said David Donahue, deputy assistant secretary of state for consular services.

Mr. Donahue said the delays had stemmed from increasing numbers of visa applications and from staff shortages, adding that the department hoped to reduce the turnaround time for visa applications to two weeks.

Academic groups and scientific organizations have complained that researchers from abroad who are seeking to obtain or renew visas have frequently encountered months-long delays.

As a result, some scholars who left the United States have been stranded, the groups say, while other researchers and students have been discouraged from traveling to the United States for work or for academic meetings.

Vaughan Turekian, chief international officer at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said his nonprofit group saw particular problems when scientists from China and countries in the former Soviet Union tried to obtain visas.

About 20 percent of the high-level Chinese experts invited to participate in a recent workshop on ethics and conduct between the United States and China had to drop out because visa processing took too long.

 — Karin Fischer