Est. 3min 22-06-2011 (updated: 05-11-2012 ) STUDENT.jpg Euractiv is part of the Trust Project >>> Languages: Français | DeutschPrint Email Facebook X LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram The European Commission will push ahead later this year with proposals to rank all of Europe's universities galvanised by a report highlighting the shortcomings of existing global league tables. In a European University Association report on 'Global university rankings and their impact', published last week, 13 global ranking systems were scrutinised, including the high-profile Shanghai Academic and Times Higher Education lists. Such rankings only cover around 3% of the world's universities (17,000) and the ratings reflect university research performance "far more accurately than teaching," because the indicators used to rank teaching are "all proxies, and their link to the quality of teaching is indirect at best," according to the report. Existing systems biased towards English language It also found that the global rankings favour universities from English-language nations because non-English language work is both published and cited less, giving non-English academics lower scores. Speaking at the launch of the report, Jan Truszcy?ski, director-general at the Commission's DG Education, said that the EU’s U-Multirank scheme would be included in amendments to the Professional Qualifications Directive later this year, in an effort to bring it formally into effect. The Commission's U-Multirank, developed over two years by a consortium of academics and funded by the Commission, is described as "a new, user-driven, multidimensional and multi-level ranking tool in higher education and research". A final feasibility study last month concluded that the system is ready to be implemented, depending on future funding and commercial support. Truszcy?ski said that although the Commission was prepared to fund the first year of the full U-Multirank system once it is ready to be rolled out, from then on it would have to be funded from other sources, likely to be a combination of national governments and European educational foundations. Data could be used to make league tables U-Multirank aims not to produce a single league table, but to allow its users to choose which institutions to compare and which criteria to use to compare them. The idea is that the system compares like with like, takes into account the diverse range of university missions, and avoids the focus on a research-driven 'reputation race' created by the existing world rankings. However, such data could be used by media outlets, and by universities themselves, as a tool for creating their own league tables. The U-Multirank would meet criticisms levelled in a 2008 report by the French Senate, which concluded that a lack of harmonised data on French universities had led to biased information on the country's higher education institutions and weakened the visibility of the research carried out in them. The Senate proposed the development of a new European university ranking system to counter the powerful Shanghai world ranking, which is said to favour English-language institutions. Jeremy Fleming Read more with Euractiv EU research priorities to be revealed, renamed Climate change, energy, health and SMEs will form the centre of European Commission proposals for research funding within the new Common Strategic Framework (CSF), which will be renamed today (10 June) at a 700-strong stakeholder event. Subscribe now to our newsletter EU Elections Decoded Email Address * Politics Newsletters Positions "We find this report excellent because the problem is that rankings systems are not transparent and a regular user will not know what is behind the numbers," said Allan P?ll, vice-chair of the European Students' Union. "In general more information is required by students than that offered by the global rankings, such as information relating to the quality of life the cost of rents and other such material of direct impact to students," P?ll concluded. "I think we should all insist that there should be more transparency and if there are any unclear methods behind these rankings then they should be specified," said Jan Truszcy?ski, director-general of DG Education at the European Commission. On the subject of the Commission's proposed Multirank system, Truszcy?ski said: "The funding for the Multirank will have to be found from a variety of sources, especially given the current squeeze on finances. At the end of September we will come through with a policy document. It will be one of the tools brought within the Qualifications Directive." "The global rankings cover only 500 of the world's 16,000 universities and that is not a huge percentage. We would like to see those institutions which have not received coverage getting the chance to increase their profiles. We would also like to see each discipline given a due weighting: for example a university may have few research capabilities but be excellent for teaching." "In creating a new rating it is important to focus on what the rankings are intended to achieve," according to Sir Howard Newby, vice-chancellor of the University of Liverpool. He added: "A ranking which is aimed at students in order to give them sufficient information on which to base a decision of where they might like to study is different from a ranking intended to indicate the quality of a research department, for example." "There are big gaps, however, in the current global rankings, including the lack of information about the employability of students from institutions and the extent to which universities are successful at knowledge transfer," Newby said. “France has consistently supported the Commission’s project to create a ranking for higher education institutions based on a variety of criteria,” said a spokesman for the French government. He added: “At the same time, France has taken part (through the participation of l’Observatoire des sciences et des techniques) in the CHERPA network consortium which was responsible for assessing the feasibility of such a project.” “Thanks to its analysis through five criteria (teaching and education, local influence, internationality, research and innovation and technology transfer), it ought to help students find the right vocations and improve their chances of studying overseas by giving them clear and objective information about educational possibilities in Europe and around the world,” the French government spokesman concluded. Background The French Senate claimed in a report in 2008 that the lack of harmonised data on French universities had led to biased information on the country's higher education institutions and weakened the visibility of the research carried out in them. At international level, it harmed the attractiveness of France as a destination for foreign students and researchers and decreased the visibility of university research, the report said. It claimed that exaggerated attention was given to the so-called Shanghai ranking, an index for monitoring the research performance of universities around the world, which the Senate said "only partially and imperfectly reflects the reality". France's key bone of contention with the Shanghai index is that the number of citations of a institution's scientific research is used as a ranking factor. Paris said this works against countries that do not publish in English, a criticism frequently leveled by the non-English speaking academic world. The development of the U-Multirank is designed not only to deal with these perceived biases, but also to create a tool which compares like with like, eschewing a traditional league table listing universities in some order of preference. Timeline Sept. 2011: Commission to propose full U-Multirank to go forward in the context of amendments to the Professional Qualifications Directive. Further ReadingMember states French SenateReport on university rankings 2008 Think tanks & Academia European Universities AssociationGlobal University Rankings and Their Impact European CommissionU-Multirank report Press articles EURACTIV Slovakia:Komisia chce nový transparentnejší rebrí?ek univerzít
