Another Ranking on the Way

The European Union has just launched its U- Multirankranking system. Data will be collected during 2013 and the results will be out in 2014.

According to the European Commissioner for Education the aim is to to provide a multi-dimensional analysis of institutions rather than one that emphasises research excellence.

It is certainly true that the prominent international rankings focus largely or almost entirely  on research. The Shanghai rankings are all about research except perhaps the 10 percent for Nobel and Field awards given to alumni. The QS rankings have a weighting at least 60 per cent for research (citations per faculty and academic survey) and maybe more since research only faculty are counted in the faculty student ratio. Times Higher Education allocates 30 percent for research influence (citations) and 30 percent for research (volume, income and reputation). Since the scores for the citations indicators are substantially higher than those for the others  it can carry an even greater weight for many universities.  Rankings that measure other significant parts of a university’s mission might therefore fill an obvious gap.

But the new rankings are going to rely on data submitted by universities. What happens if several major institutions, including perhaps many British ones, decline to take part?